Body animation sharing and remixing

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a method for performing operations comprising: receiving, by a client device associated with a first user, a communication from a second user; retrieving, from the communication, a movement vector representing three-dimensional (3D) movement of a set of skeletal joints of the second user; receiving, by the client device associated with the first user, input that selects a 3D avatar; and animating, based on the movement vector, the 3D avatar to mimic the 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of the second user.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/951,921, filed on Nov. 18, 2020, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to visual presentations andmore particularly to rendering virtual objects in real-worldenvironments.

BACKGROUND

Virtual rendering systems can be used to create engaging andentertaining augmented reality experiences, in which three-dimensionalvirtual object graphics content appears to be present in the real-world.Such systems can be subject to presentation problems due toenvironmental conditions, user actions, unanticipated visualinterruption between a camera and the object being rendered, and thelike. This can cause a virtual object to disappear or otherwise behaveerratically, which breaks the illusion of the virtual objects beingpresent in the real-world.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. To easily identifythe discussion of any particular element or act, the most significantdigit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number inwhich that element is first introduced. Some embodiments are illustratedby way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a networked environment inwhich the present disclosure may be deployed, in accordance with someexamples.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a messaging system, inaccordance with some examples, that has both client-side and server-sidefunctionality.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of a data structure asmaintained in a database, in accordance with some examples.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic representation of a message, in accordance withsome examples.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example access-limitingprocess, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeralmessage, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a contentcollection (e.g., an ephemeral message story) may be time-limited (e.g.,made ephemeral), according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating various components of anaugmentation system, according to example embodiments.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts illustrating example operations of theaugmentation system in performing a process for rendering a virtualobject based on motion capture, according to example embodiments.

FIGS. 9-11 are diagrams depicting an object rendered within athree-dimensional space by the augmentation system, according to exampleembodiments.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a representative softwarearchitecture, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine able toread instructions from a machine-readable medium (e.g., amachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, according to example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The description that follows includes systems, methods, techniques,instruction sequences, and computing machine program products thatembody illustrative embodiments of the disclosure. In the followingdescription, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific detailsare set forth in order to provide an understanding of variousembodiments. It will be evident, however, to those skilled in the art,that embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. Ingeneral, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures, andtechniques are not necessarily shown in detail.

Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure improve thefunctionality of electronic messaging and imaging software and systemsby rendering an augmented reality item and effects as if the augmentedreality object exists in a real-world scene containing real-worldobjects featured in a video. Some examples of an augmented reality iteminclude a two-dimensional virtual object or a three-dimensional (3D)virtual object, such as a 3D caption, emoji, character, avatar,animation, looping animation of a personalized avatar or character,looping or non-looping animated graphic such as a dancing hot dog, astylized word with animation and particles effects, multiple virtualobjects, and the like. In some embodiments, one such augmented realityitem is selected by a user and added to a video to provide the illusionthat the selected augmented reality item is part of the real-worldscene. In one example, the augmented reality item can be an avatar thatrepresents the user or person in the video.

In some embodiments, placement, positioning and movement of the selectedaugmented reality item is determined based on previously capturedmovement of a person that is depicted in the video to maintain theillusion that the augmented reality item is part of the real-worldscene. In order to dynamically adjust the placement, positioning andmovement of the augmented reality item relative to the person in thescene, a set of skeletal joints of the person are identified andmovement of such joints is stored in a movement vector. Subsequently,the movement vector is used to updated 3D movement of an augmentedreality item, such as an avatar. In some cases, the 3D movement isanimated and looped continuously to allow the user to adjust thepositioning of the animated augmented reality item in the video. Thismaintains the illusion of the virtual object being present in thereal-world.

In some embodiments, the movement vector can be exchanged between usersto allow a second user to apply the movement vector to a 3D avatarselected by the second user. In this way, a first user can record amovement vector and send the movement vector to the second user. Thesecond user can then use the movement vector recorded by the first userto animate the 3D avatar selected by the second user. The second usercan update or modify the movement vector based on recorded movement ofthe second user. In some cases, multiple avatars can be presentedlooping different animations of different movement vectors (e.g., afirst avatar can loop animation of a first movement vector generatedbased on a first user's recorded movement and another avatar that ispresented together with the first avatar can loop animation of a secondmovement vector generated based on a second user's recorded movement).Video of the multiple avatars and, optionally of one or more users, canbe recorded and shared with other users on a messaging applicationplatform.

Networked Computing Environment

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example messaging system 100 forexchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network.The messaging system 100 includes multiple instances of a client device102, each of which hosts a number of applications, including a messagingclient 104 and other external applications 109 (e.g., third-partyapplications). Each messaging client 104 is communicatively coupled toother instances of the messaging client 104 (e.g., hosted on respectiveother client devices 102), a messaging server system 108 and externalapp(s) servers 110 via a network 112 (e.g., the Internet). A messagingclient 104 can also communicate with locally-hosted third-partyapplications 109 using Applications Program Interfaces (APIs).

A messaging client 104 is able to communicate and exchange data withother messaging clients 104 and with the messaging server system 108 viathe network 112. The data exchanged between messaging clients 104, andbetween a messaging client 104 and the messaging server system 108,includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) as well aspayload data (e.g., text, audio, video or other multimedia data).

The messaging server system 108 provides server-side functionality viathe network 112 to a particular messaging client 104. While certainfunctions of the messaging system 100 are described herein as beingperformed by either a messaging client 104 or by the messaging serversystem 108, the location of certain functionality either within themessaging client 104 or the messaging server system 108 may be a designchoice. For example, it may be technically preferable to initiallydeploy certain technology and functionality within the messaging serversystem 108 but to later migrate this technology and functionality to themessaging client 104 where a client device 102 has sufficient processingcapacity.

The messaging server system 108 supports various services and operationsthat are provided to the messaging client 104. Such operations includetransmitting data to, receiving data from, and processing data generatedby the messaging client 104. This data may include message content,client device information, geolocation information, media augmentationand overlays, message content persistence conditions, social networkinformation, and live event information, as examples. Data exchangeswithin the messaging system 100 are invoked and controlled throughfunctions available via user interfaces (UIs) of the messaging client104.

Turning now specifically to the messaging server system 108, anApplication Program Interface (API) server 116 is coupled to, andprovides a programmatic interface to, application servers 114. Theapplication servers 114 are communicatively coupled to a database server120, which facilitates access to a database 126 that stores dataassociated with messages processed by the application servers 114.Similarly, a web server 128 is coupled to the application servers 114,and provides web-based interfaces to the application servers 114. Tothis end, the web server 128 processes incoming network requests overthe Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and several other relatedprotocols.

The Application Program Interface (API) server 116 receives andtransmits message data (e.g., commands and message payloads) between theclient device 102 and the application servers 114. Specifically, theApplication Program Interface (API) server 116 provides a set ofinterfaces (e.g., routines and protocols) that can be called or queriedby the messaging client 104 in order to invoke functionality of theapplication servers 114. The Application Program Interface (API) server116 exposes various functions supported by the application servers 114,including account registration, login functionality, the sending ofmessages, via the application servers 114, from a particular messagingclient 104 to another messaging client 104, the sending of media files(e.g., images or video) from a messaging client 104 to a messagingserver 118, and for possible access by another messaging client 104, thesettings of a collection of media data (e.g., story), the retrieval of alist of friends of a user of a client device 102, the retrieval of suchcollections, the retrieval of messages and content, the addition anddeletion of entities (e.g., friends) to an entity graph (e.g., a socialgraph), the location of friends within a social graph, and opening anapplication event (e.g., relating to the messaging client 104).

The application servers 114 host a number of server applications andsubsystems, including for example a messaging server 118, an imageprocessing server 122, and a social network server 124. The messagingserver 118 implements a number of message processing technologies andfunctions, particularly related to the aggregation and other processingof content (e.g., textual and multimedia content) included in messagesreceived from multiple instances of the messaging client 104. As will bedescribed in further detail, the text and media content from multiplesources may be aggregated into collections of content (e.g., calledstories or galleries). These collections are then made available to themessaging client 104. Other processor- and memory-intensive processingof data may also be performed server-side by the messaging server 118,in view of the hardware requirements for such processing.

The application servers 114 also include an image processing server 122that is dedicated to performing various image processing operations,typically with respect to images or video within the payload of amessage sent from or received at the messaging server 118.

The social network server 124 supports various social networkingfunctions and services and makes these functions and services availableto the messaging server 118. To this end, the social network server 124maintains and accesses an entity graph 308 (as shown in FIG. 3 ) withinthe database 126. Examples of functions and services supported by thesocial network server 124 include the identification of other users ofthe messaging system 100 with which a particular user has relationshipsor is “following,” and also the identification of other entities andinterests of a particular user.

Returning to the messaging client 104, features and functions of anexternal resource (e.g., a third-party application 109 or applet) aremade available to a user via an interface of the messaging client 104.The messaging client 104 receives a user selection of an option tolaunch or access features of an external resource (e.g., a third-partyresource), such as external apps 109. The external resource may be athird-party application (external apps 109) installed on the clientdevice 102 (e.g., a “native app”), or a small-scale version of thethird-party application (e.g., an “applet”) that is hosted on the clientdevice 102 or remote of the client device 102 (e.g., on third-partyservers 110). The small-scale version of the third-party applicationincludes a subset of features and functions of the third-partyapplication (e.g., the full-scale, native version of the third-partystandalone application) and is implemented using a markup-languagedocument. In one example, the small-scale version of the third-partyapplication (e.g., an “applet”) is a web-based, markup-language versionof the third-party application and is embedded in the messaging client104. In addition to using markup-language documents (e.g., a .*ml file),an applet may incorporate a scripting language (e.g., a .*js file or a.json file) and a style sheet (e.g., a .*ss file).

In response to receiving a user selection of the option to launch oraccess features of the external resource (external app 109), themessaging client 104 determines whether the selected external resourceis a web-based external resource or a locally-installed externalapplication. In some cases, external applications 109 that are locallyinstalled on the client device 102 can be launched independently of andseparately from the messaging client 104, such as by selecting an icon,corresponding to the external application 109, on a home screen of theclient device 102. Small-scale versions of such external applicationscan be launched or accessed via the messaging client 104 and, in someexamples, no or limited portions of the small-scale external applicationcan be accessed outside of the messaging client 104. The small-scaleexternal application can be launched by the messaging client 104receiving, from a external app(s) server 110, a markup-language documentassociated with the small-scale external application and processing sucha document.

In response to determining that the external resource is alocally-installed external application 109, the messaging client 104instructs the client device 102 to launch the external application 109by executing locally-stored code corresponding to the externalapplication 109. In response to determining that the external resourceis a web-based resource, the messaging client 104 communicates with theexternal app(s) servers 110 to obtain a markup-language documentcorresponding to the selected resource. The messaging client 104 thenprocesses the obtained markup-language document to present the web-basedexternal resource within a user interface of the messaging client 104.

The messaging client 104 can notify a user of the client device 102, orother users related to such a user (e.g., “friends”), of activity takingplace in one or more external resources. For example, the messagingclient 104 can provide participants in a conversation (e.g., a chatsession) in the messaging client 104 with notifications relating to thecurrent or recent use of an external resource by one or more members ofa group of users. One or more users can be invited to join in an activeexternal resource or to launch a recently-used but currently inactive(in the group of friends) external resource. The external resource canprovide participants in a conversation, each using a respectivemessaging client 104, with the ability to share an item, status, state,or location in an external resource with one or more members of a groupof users into a chat session. The shared item may be an interactive chatcard with which members of the chat can interact, for example, to launchthe corresponding external resource, view specific information withinthe external resource, or take the member of the chat to a specificlocation or state within the external resource. Within a given externalresource, response messages can be sent to users on the messaging client104. The external resource can selectively include different media itemsin the responses, based on a current context of the external resource.

The messaging client 104 can present a list of the available externalresources (e.g., third-party or external applications 109 or applets) toa user to launch or access a given external resource. This list can bepresented in a context-sensitive menu. For example, the iconsrepresenting different ones of the external application 109 (or applets)can vary based on how the menu is launched by the user (e.g., from aconversation interface or from a non-conversation interface).

System Architecture

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating further details regarding themessaging system 100, according to some examples. Specifically, themessaging system 100 is shown to comprise the messaging client 104 andthe application servers 114. The messaging system 100 embodies a numberof subsystems, which are supported on the client side by the messagingclient 104 and on the sever side by the application servers 114. Thesesubsystems include, for example, an ephemeral timer system 202, acollection management system 204, an augmentation system 208, a mapsystem 210, a game system 212, and an external resource system 220.

The ephemeral timer system 202 is responsible for enforcing thetemporary or time-limited access to content by the messaging client 104and the messaging server 118. The ephemeral timer system 202incorporates a number of timers that, based on duration and displayparameters associated with a message, or collection of messages (e.g., astory), selectively enable access (e.g., for presentation and display)to messages and associated content via the messaging client 104. Furtherdetails regarding the operation of the ephemeral timer system 202 areprovided below.

The collection management system 204 is responsible for managing sets orcollections of media (e.g., collections of text, image video, and audiodata). A collection of content (e.g., messages, including images, video,text, and audio) may be organized into an “event gallery” or an “eventstory.” Such a collection may be made available for a specified timeperiod, such as the duration of an event to which the content relates.For example, content relating to a music concert may be made availableas a “story” for the duration of that music concert. The collectionmanagement system 204 may also be responsible for publishing an iconthat provides notification of the existence of a particular collectionto the user interface of the messaging client 104.

The collection management system 204 furthermore includes a curationinterface 206 that allows a collection manager to manage and curate aparticular collection of content. For example, the curation interface206 enables an event organizer to curate a collection of contentrelating to a specific event (e.g., delete inappropriate content orredundant messages). Additionally, the collection management system 204employs machine vision (or image recognition technology) and contentrules to automatically curate a content collection. In certain examples,compensation may be paid to a user for the inclusion of user-generatedcontent into a collection. In such cases, the collection managementsystem 204 operates to automatically make payments to such users for theuse of their content.

The augmentation system 208 provides various functions that enable auser to augment (e.g., annotate or otherwise modify or edit) mediacontent associated with a message. For example, the augmentation system208 provides functions related to the generation and publishing of mediaoverlays for messages processed by the messaging system 100. Theaugmentation system 208 operatively supplies a media overlay oraugmentation (e.g., an image filter) to the messaging client 104 basedon a geolocation of the client device 102. In another example, theaugmentation system 208 operatively supplies a media overlay to themessaging client 104 based on other information, such as social networkinformation of the user of the client device 102. A media overlay mayinclude audio and visual content and visual effects. Examples of audioand visual content include pictures, texts, logos, animations, and soundeffects. An example of a visual effect includes color overlaying. Theaudio and visual content or the visual effects can be applied to a mediacontent item (e.g., a photo) at the client device 102. For example, themedia overlay may include text, a graphical element, or image that canbe overlaid on top of a photograph taken by the client device 102. Inanother example, the media overlay includes an identification of alocation overlay (e.g., Venice beach), a name of a live event, or a nameof a merchant overlay (e.g., Beach Coffee House). In another example,the augmentation system 208 uses the geolocation of the client device102 to identify a media overlay that includes the name of a merchant atthe geolocation of the client device 102. The media overlay may includeother indicia associated with the merchant. The media overlays may bestored in the database 126 and accessed through the database server 120.

In some examples, the augmentation system 208 provides a user-basedpublication platform that enables users to select a geolocation on a mapand upload content associated with the selected geolocation. The usermay also specify circumstances under which a particular media overlayshould be offered to other users. The augmentation system 208 generatesa media overlay that includes the uploaded content and associates theuploaded content with the selected geolocation.

In other examples, the augmentation system 208 provides a merchant-basedpublication platform that enables merchants to select a particular mediaoverlay associated with a geolocation via a bidding process. Forexample, the augmentation system 208 associates the media overlay of thehighest bidding merchant with a corresponding geolocation for apredefined amount of time. The augmentation system 208 communicates withthe image processing server 122 to automatically select and activate anaugmented reality experience related to an image captured by the clientdevice 102. Once the augmented reality experience is selected as theuser scans images using a camera in the user's environment, one or moreimages, videos, or augmented reality graphical elements are retrievedand presented as an overlay on top of the scanned images. In some cases,the camera is switched to a front-facing view (e.g., the front-facingcamera of the client device 102 is activated in response to activationof a particular augmented reality experience) and the images from thefront-facing camera of the client device 102 start being displayed onthe client device 102 instead of the rear-facing camera of the clientdevice 102. The one or more images, videos, or augmented realitygraphical elements are retrieved and presented as an overlay on top ofthe images that are captured and displayed by the front-facing camera ofthe client device 102.

The augmentation system 208 provides functionality to generate, display,and track virtual objects at positions relative to a real-world object(e.g., a person) depicted in a video captured by the client device 102.For example, the augmentation system 208 tracks virtual objects oraugmented reality items (e.g., avatars) within at positions relative toreal-world objects featured in a real-world scene of the video. Theaugmentation system 208 comprises a set of tracking subsystemsconfigured to track the virtual object at the position inthree-dimensional space based on a set of tracking indicia which may arestored and associated with the video, and transition between trackingsubsystems. The augmentation system 208 may further transition betweentracking with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and tracking with threedegrees of freedom (3DoF) based on an availability of the trackingindicia stored for the video.

The augmentation system 208 provides functionality to capture movementor motion of a person depicted in a video. Capturing the movemententails identifying and tracking 3D positions and movement of aplurality of skeletal joints of the person depicted in the video. Afterthe movement or motion is captured (e.g., 3 seconds worth of movement),the 3D positions and movement of the skeletal joints are stored in amovement vector. A user selection of an avatar is received and themovement vector is used to animate the avatar performing the samemovement (e.g., 3 seconds worth of avatar movement). The avataranimation is continuously looped to continuously represent the movementstored in the movement vector. The avatar can be moved around and placedanywhere in the scene in 3D space. The animated avatar can also beshared with one or more other users, such as in a chat message.

The augmentation system 208 allows a first user to record and generate amovement or motion vector and share the movement vector with one or moreother users. For example, after recording movement of the first user togenerate a movement vector, the first user can select an option to senda communication (e.g., a chat message) to a second user. Thecommunication can include the movement vector generated by the firstuser. Upon receiving the movement vector, the second user can select anoption to open the communication to view the movement vector. Theaugmentation system 208 obtains a generic skeletal rig and animates theskeletal rig based on the movement vector that is included in thecommunication. This allows the second user to preview the motion storedin the movement vector. In some cases, the communication includes avideo that depicts the first user and a first 3D avatar loopinganimation of the movement vector (e.g., the first avatar can be moved inthe video based on the movements or motion specified in the movementvector). The second user can open the video to see the simultaneousdisplay of the first user (performing one pose or one motion) while thefirst 3D avatar loops animation mimicking previously captured motion ofthe first user that is stored in the movement vector.

The augmentation system 208 allows the second user to select a second 3Davatar. Upon selecting the second 3D avatar, the augmentation system 208applies the movement vector to the selected second 3D avatar. Theaugmentation system 208 loops an animation of the second 3D avatarperforming motion specified by the movement vector received from thefirst user. Namely, the skeletal rig of the selected second 3D avatar ismodified based on the joint movements, speed, direction, positions andacceleration specified in the movement vector. This way, the second usercan apply movements or motion recorded by a first user to an avatarselected by the second user. The second user can also modify the motionor movement vector to increase or decrease the amount or duration ofmovements specified in the movement vector. In one example, the seconduser can record additional movements (e.g., in the same manner as thefirst user records the movements in the movement vector) and can prependor append the additional movements to the movement vector received fromthe first user. In another example, the second user can record a newmovement vector and apply the newly recorded movement to an avatarselected by the second user. The avatar selected by the second user canloop animation of the new movement vector and may be displayed togetherwith another avatar that loops animation of the movements specified inthe movement vector received from the first user.

The map system 210 provides various geographic location functions, andsupports the presentation of map-based media content and messages by themessaging client 104. For example, the map system 210 enables thedisplay of user icons or avatars (e.g., stored in profile data 316) on amap to indicate a current or past location of “friends” of a user, aswell as media content (e.g., collections of messages includingphotographs and videos) generated by such friends, within the context ofa map. For example, a message posted by a user to the messaging system100 from a specific geographic location may be displayed within thecontext of a map at that particular location to “friends” of a specificuser on a map interface of the messaging client 104. A user canfurthermore share his or her location and status information (e.g.,using an appropriate status avatar) with other users of the messagingsystem 100 via the messaging client 104, with this location and statusinformation being similarly displayed within the context of a mapinterface of the messaging client 104 to selected users.

The game system 212 provides various gaming functions within the contextof the messaging client 104. The messaging client 104 provides a gameinterface providing a list of available games (e.g., web-based games orweb-based applications) that can be launched by a user within thecontext of the messaging client 104, and played with other users of themessaging system 100. The messaging system 100 further enables aparticular user to invite other users to participate in the play of aspecific game, by issuing invitations to such other users from themessaging client 104. The messaging client 104 also supports both voiceand text messaging (e.g., chats) within the context of gameplay,provides a leaderboard for the games, and also supports the provision ofin-game rewards (e.g., coins and items).

The external resource system 220 provides an interface for the messagingclient 104 to communicate with external app(s) servers 110 to launch oraccess external resources. Each external resource (apps) server 110hosts, for example, a markup language (e.g., HTML5)—based application orsmall-scale version of an external application (e.g., game, utility,payment, or ride-sharing application that is external to the messagingclient 104). The messaging client 104 may launch a web-based resource(e.g., application) by accessing the HTML5 file from the externalresource (apps) servers 110 associated with the web-based resource. Incertain examples, applications hosted by external resource servers 110are programmed in JavaScript leveraging a Software Development Kit (SDK)provided by the messaging server 118. The SDK includes ApplicationProgramming Interfaces (APIs) with functions that can be called orinvoked by the web-based application. In certain examples, the messagingserver 118 includes a JavaScript library that provides a giventhird-party resource access to certain user data of the messaging client104. HTML5 is used as an example technology for programming games, butapplications and resources programmed based on other technologies can beused.

In order to integrate the functions of the SDK into the web-basedresource, the SDK is downloaded by an external resource (apps) server110 from the messaging server 118 or is otherwise received by theexternal resource (apps) server 110. Once downloaded or received, theSDK is included as part of the application code of a web-based externalresource. The code of the web-based resource can then call or invokecertain functions of the SDK to integrate features of the messagingclient 104 into the web-based resource.

The SDK stored on the messaging server 118 effectively provides thebridge between an external resource (e.g., third-party or externalapplications 109 or applets and the messaging client 104). This providesthe user with a seamless experience of communicating with other users onthe messaging client 104, while also preserving the look and feel of themessaging client 104. To bridge communications between an externalresource and a messaging client 104, in certain examples, the SDKfacilitates communication between external resource servers 110 and themessaging client 104. In certain examples, a WebViewJavaScriptBridgerunning on a client device 102 establishes two one-way communicationchannels between an external resource and the messaging client 104.Messages are sent between the external resource and the messaging client104 via these communication channels asynchronously. Each SDK functioninvocation is sent as a message and callback. Each SDK function isimplemented by constructing a unique callback identifier and sending amessage with that callback identifier.

By using the SDK, not all information from the messaging client 104 isshared with external resource servers 110. The SDK limits whichinformation is shared based on the needs of the external resource. Incertain examples, each external resource server 110 provides an HTML5file corresponding to the web-based external resource to the messagingserver 118. The messaging server 118 can add a visual representation(such as box art or other graphic) of the web-based external resource inthe messaging client 104. Once the user selects the visualrepresentation or instructs the messaging client 104 through a GUI ofthe messaging client 104 to access features of the web-based externalresource, the messaging client 104 obtains the HTML5 file andinstantiates the resources necessary to access the features of theweb-based external resource.

The messaging client 104 presents a graphical user interface (e.g., alanding page or title screen) for an external resource. During, before,or after presenting the landing page or title screen, the messagingclient 104 determines whether the launched external resource has beenpreviously authorized to access user data of the messaging client 104.In response to determining that the launched external resource has beenpreviously authorized to access user data of the messaging client 104,the messaging client 104 presents another graphical user interface ofthe external resource that includes functions and features of theexternal resource. In response to determining that the launched externalresource has not been previously authorized to access user data of themessaging client 104, after a threshold period of time (e.g., 3 seconds)of displaying the landing page or title screen of the external resource,the messaging client 104 slides up (e.g., animates a menu as surfacingfrom a bottom of the screen to a middle of or other portion of thescreen) a menu for authorizing the external resource to access the userdata. The menu identifies the type of user data that the externalresource will be authorized to use. In response to receiving a userselection of an accept option, the messaging client 104 adds theexternal resource to a list of authorized external resources and allowsthe external resource to access user data from the messaging client 104.In some examples, the external resource is authorized by the messagingclient 104 to access the user data in accordance with an OAuth 2framework.

The messaging client 104 controls the type of user data that is sharedwith external resources based on the type of external resource beingauthorized. For example, external resources that include full-scaleexternal applications (e.g., a third-party or external application 109)are provided with access to a first type of user data (e.g., onlytwo-dimensional avatars of users with or without different avatarcharacteristics). As another example, external resources that includesmall-scale versions of external applications (e.g., web-based versionsof third-party applications) are provided with access to a second typeof user data (e.g., payment information, two-dimensional avatars ofusers, three-dimensional avatars of users, and avatars with variousavatar characteristics). Avatar characteristics include different waysto customize a look and feel of an avatar, such as different poses,facial features, clothing, and so forth.

Data Architecture

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating data structures 300, whichmay be stored in the database 126 of the messaging server system 108,according to certain examples. While the content of the database 126 isshown to comprise a number of tables, it will be appreciated that thedata could be stored in other types of data structures (e.g., as anobject-oriented database).

The database 126 includes message data stored within a message table302. This message data includes, for any particular one message, atleast message sender data, message recipient (or receiver) data, and apayload. Further details regarding information that may be included in amessage, and included within the message data stored in the messagetable 302, is described below with reference to FIG. 4 .

An entity table 306 stores entity data, and is linked (e.g.,referentially) to an entity graph 308 and profile data 316. Entities forwhich records are maintained within the entity table 306 may includeindividuals, corporate entities, organizations, objects, places, events,and so forth. Regardless of entity type, any entity regarding which themessaging server system 108 stores data may be a recognized entity. Eachentity is provided with a unique identifier, as well as an entity typeidentifier (not shown).

The entity graph 308 stores information regarding relationships andassociations between entities. Such relationships may be social,professional (e.g., work at a common corporation or organization)interested-based or activity-based, merely for example.

The profile data 316 stores multiple types of profile data about aparticular entity. The profile data 316 may be selectively used andpresented to other users of the messaging system 100, based on privacysettings specified by a particular entity. Where the entity is anindividual, the profile data 316 includes, for example, a user name,telephone number, address, settings (e.g., notification and privacysettings), as well as a user-selected avatar representation (orcollection of such avatar representations). A particular user may thenselectively include one or more of these avatar representations withinthe content of messages communicated via the messaging system 100, andon map interfaces displayed by messaging clients 104 to other users. Thecollection of avatar representations may include “status avatars,” whichpresent a graphical representation of a status or activity that the usermay select to communicate at a particular time.

Where the entity is a group, the profile data 316 for the group maysimilarly include one or more avatar representations associated with thegroup, in addition to the group name, members, and various settings(e.g., notifications) for the relevant group.

The database 126 also stores augmentation data, such as overlays orfilters, in an augmentation table 310. The augmentation data isassociated with and applied to videos (for which data is stored in avideo table 304) and images (for which data is stored in an image table312).

Filters, in one example, are overlays that are displayed as overlaid onan image or video during presentation to a recipient user. Filters maybe of various types, including user-selected filters from a set offilters presented to a sending user by the messaging client 104 when thesending user is composing a message. Other types of filters includegeolocation filters (also known as geo-filters), which may be presentedto a sending user based on geographic location. For example, geolocationfilters specific to a neighborhood or special location may be presentedwithin a user interface by the messaging client 104, based ongeolocation information determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS)unit of the client device 102.

Another type of filter is a data filter, which may be selectivelypresented to a sending user by the messaging client 104, based on otherinputs or information gathered by the client device 102 during themessage creation process. Examples of data filters include currenttemperature at a specific location, a current speed at which a sendinguser is traveling, battery life for a client device 102, or the currenttime.

Other augmentation data that may be stored within the image table 312includes augmented reality content items (e.g., corresponding toapplying lenses or augmented reality experiences). An augmented realitycontent item may be a real-time special effect and sound that may beadded to an image or a video. The augmentation data may include one ormore movement vectors representing previously captured movement (e.g.,over a 3 or 4 second interval) of a person's skeletal joints.

As described above, augmentation data includes augmented reality contentitems, overlays, image transformations, AR images, virtual objects, andsimilar terms that refer to modifications that may be applied to imagedata (e.g., videos or images). This includes real-time modifications,which modify an image as it is captured using device sensors (e.g., oneor multiple cameras) of a client device 102 and then display on a screenof the client device 102 with the modifications. This also includesmodifications to stored content, such as video clips in a gallery thatmay be modified. For example, in a client device 102 with access tomultiple augmented reality content items, a user can use a single videowith multiple augmented reality content items to see how the differentaugmented reality content items will modify the stored video. Forexample, multiple augmented reality content items that apply differentpseudorandom movement models can be applied to the same content byselecting different augmented reality content items for the content.Similarly, real-time video capture may be used with an illustratedmodification to show how video images currently being captured bysensors of a client device 102 would modify the captured data. Such datamay simply be displayed on the screen and not stored in memory, or thecontent captured by the device sensors may be recorded and stored inmemory with or without the modifications (or both). In some systems, apreview feature can show how different augmented reality content itemswill look within different windows in a display at the same time. Thiscan, for example, enable multiple windows with different pseudorandomanimations to be viewed on a display at the same time.

Data and various systems using augmented reality content items or othersuch transform systems to modify content using this data can thusinvolve detection of objects (e.g., faces, hands, bodies, cats, dogs,surfaces, objects, etc.), tracking of such objects as they leave, enter,and move around the field of view in video frames, and the modificationor transformation of such objects as they are tracked. In variousexamples, different methods for achieving such transformations may beused. Some examples may involve generating a three-dimensional meshmodel of the object or objects, and using transformations and animatedtextures of the model within the video to achieve the transformation. Inother examples, tracking of points on an object may be used to place animage or texture (which may be two dimensional or three dimensional) atthe tracked position. In still further examples, neural network analysisof video frames may be used to place images, models, or textures incontent (e.g., images or frames of video). Augmented reality contentitems thus refer both to the images, models, and textures used to createtransformations in content, as well as to additional modeling andanalysis information needed to achieve such transformations with objectdetection, tracking, and placement.

Real-time video processing can be performed with any kind of video data(e.g., video streams, video files, etc.) saved in a memory of acomputerized system of any kind. For example, a user can load videofiles and save them in a memory of a device, or can generate a videostream using sensors of the device. Additionally, any objects can beprocessed using a computer animation model, such as a human's face andparts of a human body, animals, or non-living things such as chairs,cars, or other objects.

In some examples, when a particular modification is selected along withcontent to be transformed, elements to be transformed are identified bythe computing device, and then detected and tracked if they are presentin the frames of the video. The elements of the object are modifiedaccording to the request for modification, thus transforming the framesof the video stream. Transformation of frames of a video stream can beperformed by different methods for different kinds of transformation.For example, for transformations of frames mostly referring to changingforms of an object's elements, characteristic points for each element ofthe object are calculated (e.g., using an Active Shape Model (ASM) orother known methods). Then, a mesh based on the characteristic points isgenerated for each of the at least one elements of the object. This meshis used in the following stage of tracking the elements of the object inthe video stream. In the process of tracking, the mentioned mesh foreach element is aligned with a position of each element. Then,additional points are generated on the mesh. A first set of first pointsis generated for each element based on a request for modification, and aset of second points is generated for each element based on the set offirst points and the request for modification. Then, the frames of thevideo stream can be transformed by modifying the elements of the objecton the basis of the sets of first and second points and the mesh. Insuch method, a background of the modified object can be changed ordistorted as well by tracking and modifying the background.

In some examples, transformations changing some areas of an object usingits elements can be performed by calculating characteristic points foreach element of an object and generating a mesh based on the calculatedcharacteristic points. Points are generated on the mesh, and thenvarious areas based on the points are generated. The elements of theobject are then tracked by aligning the area for each element with aposition for each of the at least one element, and properties of theareas can be modified based on the request for modification, thustransforming the frames of the video stream. Depending on the specificrequest for modification, properties of the mentioned areas can betransformed in different ways. Such modifications may involve changingcolor of areas; removing at least some part of areas from the frames ofthe video stream; including one or more new objects into areas which arebased on a request for modification; and modifying or distorting theelements of an area or object. In various examples, any combination ofsuch modifications or other similar modifications may be used. Forcertain models to be animated, some characteristic points can beselected as control points to be used in determining the entirestate-space of options for the model animation.

In some examples of a computer animation model to transform image datausing face detection, the face is detected on an image with use of aspecific face detection algorithm (e.g., Viola-Jones). Then, an ActiveShape Model (ASM) algorithm is applied to the face region of an image todetect facial feature reference points.

Other methods and algorithms suitable for face detection can be used.For example, in some examples, features are located using a landmark,which represents a distinguishable point present in most of the imagesunder consideration. For facial landmarks, for example, the location ofthe left eye pupil may be used. If an initial landmark is notidentifiable (e.g., if a person has an eyepatch), secondary landmarksmay be used. Such landmark identification procedures may be used for anysuch objects. In some examples, a set of landmarks forms a shape. Shapescan be represented as vectors using the coordinates of the points in theshape. One shape is aligned to another with a similarity transform(allowing translation, scaling, and rotation) that minimizes the averageEuclidean distance between shape points. The mean shape is the mean ofthe aligned training shapes.

In some examples, a search for landmarks from the mean shape aligned tothe position and size of the face determined by a global face detectoris started. Such a search then repeats the steps of suggesting atentative shape by adjusting the locations of shape points by templatematching of the image texture around each point and then conforming thetentative shape to a global shape model until convergence occurs. Insome systems, individual template matches are unreliable, and the shapemodel pools the results of the weak template matches to form a strongeroverall classifier. The entire search is repeated at each level in animage pyramid, from coarse to fine resolution.

A transformation system can capture an image or video stream on a clientdevice (e.g., the client device 102) and perform complex imagemanipulations locally on the client device 102 while maintaining asuitable user experience, computation time, and power consumption. Thecomplex image manipulations may include size and shape changes, emotiontransfers (e.g., changing a face from a frown to a smile), statetransfers (e.g., aging a subject, reducing apparent age, changinggender), style transfers, graphical element application, and any othersuitable image or video manipulation implemented by a convolutionalneural network that has been configured to execute efficiently on theclient device 102.

In some examples, a computer animation model to transform image data canbe used by a system where a user may capture an image or video stream ofthe user (e.g., a selfie) using a client device 102 having a neuralnetwork operating as part of a messaging client 104 operating on theclient device 102. The transformation system operating within themessaging client 104 determines the presence of a face within the imageor video stream and provides modification icons associated with acomputer animation model to transform image data, or the computeranimation model can be present as associated with an interface describedherein. The modification icons include changes that may be the basis formodifying the user's face within the image or video stream as part ofthe modification operation. Once a modification icon is selected, thetransformation system initiates a process to convert the image of theuser to reflect the selected modification icon (e.g., generate a smilingface on the user). A modified image or video stream may be presented ina graphical user interface displayed on the client device 102 as soon asthe image or video stream is captured, and a specified modification isselected. The transformation system may implement a complexconvolutional neural network on a portion of the image or video streamto generate and apply the selected modification. That is, the user maycapture the image or video stream and be presented with a modifiedresult in real-time or near real-time once a modification icon has beenselected. Further, the modification may be persistent while the videostream is being captured, and the selected modification icon remainstoggled. Machine-taught neural networks may be used to enable suchmodifications.

The graphical user interface, presenting the modification performed bythe transformation system, may supply the user with additionalinteraction options. Such options may be based on the interface used toinitiate the content capture and selection of a particular computeranimation model (e.g., initiation from a content creator userinterface). In various examples, a modification may be persistent afteran initial selection of a modification icon. The user may toggle themodification on or off by tapping or otherwise selecting the face beingmodified by the transformation system and store it for later viewing orbrowse to other areas of the imaging application. Where multiple facesare modified by the transformation system, the user may toggle themodification on or off globally by tapping or selecting a single facemodified and displayed within a graphical user interface. In someexamples, individual faces, among a group of multiple faces, may beindividually modified, or such modifications may be individually toggledby tapping or selecting the individual face or a series of individualfaces displayed within the graphical user interface.

A story table 314 stores data regarding collections of messages andassociated image, video, or audio data, which are compiled into acollection (e.g., a story or a gallery). The creation of a particularcollection may be initiated by a particular user (e.g., each user forwhich a record is maintained in the entity table 306). A user may createa “personal story” in the form of a collection of content that has beencreated and sent/broadcast by that user. To this end, the user interfaceof the messaging client 104 may include an icon that is user-selectableto enable a sending user to add specific content to his or her personalstory.

A collection may also constitute a “live story,” which is a collectionof content from multiple users that is created manually, automatically,or using a combination of manual and automatic techniques. For example,a “live story” may constitute a curated stream of user-submitted contentfrom various locations and events. Users whose client devices havelocation services enabled and are at a common location event at aparticular time may, for example, be presented with an option, via auser interface of the messaging client 104, to contribute content to aparticular live story. The live story may be identified to the user bythe messaging client 104, based on his or her location. The end resultis a “live story” told from a community perspective.

A further type of content collection is known as a “location story,”which enables a user whose client device 102 is located within aspecific geographic location (e.g., on a college or university campus)to contribute to a particular collection. In some examples, acontribution to a location story may require a second degree ofauthentication to verify that the end user belongs to a specificorganization or other entity (e.g., is a student on the universitycampus).

As mentioned above, the video table 304 stores video data that, in oneexample, is associated with messages for which records are maintainedwithin the message table 302. Similarly, the image table 312 storesimage data associated with messages for which message data is stored inthe entity table 306. The entity table 306 may associate variousaugmentations from the augmentation table 310 with various images andvideos stored in the image table 312 and the video table 304.

Data Communications Architecture

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a message 400,according to some examples, generated by a messaging client 104 forcommunication to a further messaging client 104 or the messaging server118. The content of a particular message 400 is used to populate themessage table 302 stored within the database 126, accessible by themessaging server 118. Similarly, the content of a message 400 is storedin memory as “in-transit” or “in-flight” data of the client device 102or the application servers 114. A message 400 is shown to include thefollowing example components:

-   -   message identifier 402: a unique identifier that identifies the        message 400.    -   message text payload 404: text, to be generated by a user via a        user interface of the client device 102, and that is included in        the message 400.    -   message image payload 406: image data, captured by a camera        component of a client device 102 or retrieved from a memory        component of a client device 102, and that is included in the        message 400. Image data for a sent or received message 400 may        be stored in the image table 312.    -   message video payload 408: video data, captured by a camera        component or retrieved from a memory component of the client        device 102, and that is included in the message 400. Video data        for a sent or received message 400 may be stored in the video        table 304.    -   message audio payload 410: audio data, captured by a microphone        or retrieved from a memory component of the client device 102,        and that is included in the message 400.    -   message augmentation data 412: augmentation data (e.g., filters,        stickers, or other annotations or enhancements) that represents        augmentations to be applied to message image payload 406,        message video payload 408, or message audio payload 410 of the        message 400. Augmentation data for a sent or received message        400 may be stored in the augmentation table 310.    -   message duration parameter 414: parameter value indicating, in        seconds, the amount of time for which content of the message        (e.g., the message image payload 406, message video payload 408,        message audio payload 410) is to be presented or made accessible        to a user via the messaging client 104.    -   message geolocation parameter 416: geolocation data (e.g.,        latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates) associated with the        content payload of the message. Multiple message geolocation        parameter 416 values may be included in the payload, each of        these parameter values being associated with respect to content        items included in the content (e.g., a specific image within the        message image payload 406, or a specific video in the message        video payload 408).    -   message story identifier 418: identifier values identifying one        or more content collections (e.g., “stories” identified in the        story table 314) with which a particular content item in the        message image payload 406 of the message 400 is associated. For        example, multiple images within the message image payload 406        may each be associated with multiple content collections using        identifier values.    -   message tag 420: each message 400 may be tagged with multiple        tags, each of which is indicative of the subject matter of        content included in the message payload. For example, where a        particular image included in the message image payload 406        depicts an animal (e.g., a lion), a tag value may be included        within the message tag 420 that is indicative of the relevant        animal. Tag values may be generated manually, based on user        input, or may be automatically generated using, for example,        image recognition.    -   message sender identifier 422: an identifier (e.g., a messaging        system identifier, email address, or device identifier)        indicative of a user of the client device 102 on which the        message 400 was generated and from which the message 400 was        sent.    -   message receiver identifier 424: an identifier (e.g., a        messaging system identifier, email address, or device        identifier) indicative of a user of the client device 102 to        which the message 400 is addressed.

The contents (e.g., values) of the various components of message 400 maybe pointers to locations in tables within which content data values arestored. For example, an image value in the message image payload 406 maybe a pointer to (or address of) a location within an image table 312.Similarly, values within the message video payload 408 may point to datastored within a video table 304, values stored within the messageaugmentation data 412 may point to data stored in an augmentation table310, values stored within the message story identifier 418 may point todata stored in a story table 314, and values stored within the messagesender identifier 422 and the message receiver identifier 424 may pointto user records stored within an entity table 306.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an access-limiting process500, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeral message502, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a content collection(e.g., an ephemeral message story 504), may be time-limited (e.g., madeephemeral).

An ephemeral message 502 is shown to be associated with a messageduration parameter 506, the value of which determines an amount of timethat the ephemeral message 502 will be displayed to a receiving user ofthe ephemeral message 502 by the messaging client 104. In oneembodiment, where the messaging client 104 is a application client, anephemeral message 502 is viewable by a receiving user for up to amaximum of 10 seconds, depending on the amount of time that the sendinguser specifies using the message duration parameter 506.

The message duration parameter 506 and the message receiver identifier424 are shown to be inputs to a message timer 512, which is responsiblefor determining the amount of time that the ephemeral message 502 isshown to a particular receiving user identified by the message receiveridentifier 424. In particular, the ephemeral message 502 will only beshown to the relevant receiving user for a time period determined by thevalue of the message duration parameter 506. The message timer 512 isshown to provide output to a more generalized ephemeral timer system202, which is responsible for the overall timing of display of content(e.g., an ephemeral message 502) to a receiving user.

The ephemeral message 502 is shown in FIG. 5 to be included within anephemeral message story 504 (e.g., a personal story, or an event story).The ephemeral message story 504 has an associated story durationparameter 508, a value of which determines a time-duration for which theephemeral message story 504 is presented and accessible to users of thesystem 100. The story duration parameter 508, for example, may be theduration of a music concert, where the ephemeral message story 504 is acollection of content pertaining to that concert. Alternatively, a user(either the owning user or a curator user) may specify the value for thestory duration parameter 508 when performing the setup and creation ofthe ephemeral message story 504.

Additionally, each ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral messagestory 504 has an associated story participation parameter 510, a valueof which determines the duration of time for which the ephemeral message502 will be accessible within the context of the ephemeral message story504. Accordingly, a particular ephemeral message story 504 may “expire”and become inaccessible within the context of the ephemeral messagestory 504, prior to the ephemeral message story 504 itself expiring interms of the story duration parameter 508. The story duration parameter508, story participation parameter 510, and message receiver identifier424 each provides input to a story timer 514, which operationallydetermines, firstly, whether a particular ephemeral message 502 of theephemeral message story 504 will be displayed to a particular receivinguser and, if so, for how long. Note that the ephemeral message story 504is also aware of the identity of the particular receiving user as aresult of the message receiver identifier 424.

Accordingly, the story timer 514 operationally controls the overalllifespan of an associated ephemeral message story 504, as well as anindividual ephemeral message 502 included in the ephemeral message story504. In one embodiment, each and every ephemeral message 502 within theephemeral message story 504 remains viewable and accessible for atime-period specified by the story duration parameter 508. In a furtherembodiment, a certain ephemeral message 502 may expire, within thecontext of ephemeral message story 504, based on a story participationparameter 510. Note that a message duration parameter 506 may stilldetermine the duration of time for which a particular ephemeral message502 is displayed to a receiving user, even within the context of theephemeral message story 504. Accordingly, the message duration parameter506 determines the duration of time that a particular ephemeral message502 is displayed to a receiving user, regardless of whether thereceiving user is viewing that ephemeral message 502 inside or outsidethe context of an ephemeral message story 504.

The ephemeral timer system 202 may furthermore operationally remove aparticular ephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504based on a determination that it has exceeded an associated storyparticipation parameter 510. For example, when a sending user hasestablished a story participation parameter 510 of 24 hours fromposting, the ephemeral timer system 202 will remove the relevantephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504 after thespecified 24 hours. The ephemeral timer system 202 also operates toremove an ephemeral message story 504 either when the storyparticipation parameter 510 for each and every ephemeral message 502within the ephemeral message story 504 has expired, or when theephemeral message story 504 itself has expired in terms of the storyduration parameter 508.

In certain use cases, a creator of a particular ephemeral message story504 may specify an indefinite story duration parameter 508. In thiscase, the expiration of the story participation parameter 510 for thelast remaining ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story504 will determine when the ephemeral message story 504 itself expires.In this case, a new ephemeral message 502, added to the ephemeralmessage story 504, with a new story participation parameter 510,effectively extends the life of an ephemeral message story 504 to equalthe value of the story participation parameter 510.

Responsive to the ephemeral timer system 202 determining that anephemeral message story 504 has expired (e.g., is no longer accessible),the ephemeral timer system 202 communicates with the messaging system100 (and, for example, specifically the messaging client 104) to causean indicium (e.g., an icon) associated with the relevant ephemeralmessage story 504 to no longer be displayed within a user interface ofthe messaging client application 104. Similarly, when the ephemeraltimer system 202 determines that the message duration parameter 506 fora particular ephemeral message 502 has expired, the ephemeral timersystem 202 causes the messaging client application 104 to no longerdisplay an indicium (e.g., an icon or textual identification) associatedwith the ephemeral message 502.

Augmentation System

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of theaugmentation system 208 that are configured to render virtualmodifications to a three-dimensional space depicted in a video. Forexample, augmentation system 208 renders virtual within thethree-dimensional space relative to a reference point that is associatedwith a real-world object depicted in the video (e.g., a person). Asshown in FIG. 6 , augmentation system 208 includes a rendering module602, a tracking module 604, a disruption detection module 606, an objecttemplate module 608, and processors 610.

In some example embodiments, the tracking module 604 comprises a firsttracking sub-system 604A, a second tracking sub-system 604B, and a thirdtracking sub-system 604C, wherein each tracking sub-system tracks theposition of the virtual object within the three-dimensional space of areal-world object in a video based on a set of tracking indiciaassociated with the video. The tracking indicia is obtained and storedfrom/on client device 102 while the camera of the client device 102captures the video. The various components of the augmentation system208 are configured to communicate with each other (e.g., via a bus,shared memory, or a switch). Although not illustrated in FIG. 6 , insome embodiments, the augmentation system 208 may include or may be incommunication with a camera configured to produce a live camera feedcomprising image data that includes a sequence of images or frames(e.g., a video).

Any one or more of the components described may be implemented usinghardware alone (e.g., one or more of the processors 610 of a machine) ora combination of hardware and software. For example, any componentdescribed of the augmentation system 208 may physically include anarrangement of one or more of the processors 610 (e.g., a subset of oramong the one or more processors of the machine) configured to performthe operations described herein for that component. As another example,any component of the augmentation system 208 may include software,hardware, or both, that configure an arrangement of one or moreprocessors 610 (e.g., among the one or more processors of the machine)to perform the operations described herein for that component.Accordingly, different components of the augmentation system 208 mayinclude and configure different arrangements of such processors 610 or asingle arrangement of such processors 610 at different points in time.

Moreover, any two or more components of the augmentation system 208 maybe combined into a single component, and the functions described hereinfor a single component may be subdivided among multiple components.Furthermore, according to various example embodiments, componentsdescribed herein as being implemented within a single machine, database,or device may be distributed across multiple machines, databases, ordevices.

Tracking systems are subject to frequent tracking failure due toenvironmental conditions, user actions, unanticipated visualinterruption between camera and object/scene being tracked, and soforth. Traditionally, such tracking failures would cause a disruption inthe presentation of virtual objects in a three-dimensional space. Forexample, the virtual objects may disappear or otherwise behaveerratically, thereby interrupting the illusion of the virtual objectbeing presented within the three-dimensional space of a video. Thisundermines the perceived quality of the three-dimensional experience asa whole.

Traditional tracking systems rely on delivery of sensor informationreceived in real-time from a device in a single approach (NaturalFeature Tracking (NFT), Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM),Gyroscopic, etc.) and depth sensors to track an object in video as thevideo is being captured to enable a user to add virtual objects to alive scene. These systems leverage camera, depth and motion sensor inputdata on-the-fly in augmented reality and allow the user to interact withvirtual objects in the live moment as the video is being captured. Theseapproaches though do not take into account the position and movement ofanother object, such as real-world object depicted in the video. Namely,these typical approaches place the virtual objects at designatedlocations and move the objects relative to a real-world coordinatesystem. Such objects are moved within the video as the camera or clientdevice 102 that is capturing the video moves around. If a givenreal-world object moves in the video, the traditional tracking systemsdo not change the positioning of the virtual objects. This breaks theillusion of reality that is a goal of these systems. Rather thantracking the positioning and placing the virtual objects relative to theposition of the client device 102 or the camera, the disclosedembodiments adjust positioning and movement of the virtual objectsrelative to a real-world object reference position (e.g., thepositioning and movement of a person depicted in the image). In someembodiments, the disclosed embodiments track the positioning of thereal-world objects using a typical 2D red, green and blue (RGB) cameraand without capturing any depth information about the object.

The augmentation system 208 stores tracking indicia or a reference pointassociated with a given object (e.g., a person or other reference objectthat is selected and that appears in the real-world video). Thisprovides a solution to this problem that enables the user to add avirtual object to a scene in the video and have the virtual object moverelative and based on movement of the real-world object. As one example,the size of the virtual object can increase or decrease based on achange in size of the real-world object. For example, if the real-worldobject from one frame in the video to another frame in the video comescloser to the client device 102, the virtual object position andmovement can similarly be changed. Namely, the virtual object is alsomoved closer to the client device 102 by the same distance and along thesame trajectory as the real-world object. The size of the real-worldobject may also change as the real-world object approaches or comescloser to the client device 102 or camera. Specifically, the size mayincrease by a given amount in proportion to the distance the real-worldobject moves. In such circumstances, the size of the virtual object mayalso increase by the same given amount from one frame to another.

The augmentation system 208 computes the reference point to be any pointthat lies within a region corresponding to the real-world object. As anexample, the reference point may be any one or combination of more thanone skeletal joint position. Once the skeletal joint position orcombination of multiple skeletal joint positions are selected, theaugmentation system 208 uses their change in position throughout a videoto adjust the reference point. As an example, the reference point iscomputed as a center point between multiple skeletal joint positions ofa human body.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 tracks multipleskeletal joints of the real-world object throughout a sequence ofmultiple frames. The augmentation system 208 identifies and tracks theskeletal joints from only the 2D video captured with the RGB camera andwithout depth sensor information. The augmentation system 208 identifiesa given skeletal joint of the multiple skeletal joints that moves theleast amount relative to the other skeletal joints throughout thesequence of frames. The augmentation system 208 selects, as thereference point, the skeletal joint that is determined to have moved theleast amount in the sequence of frames as a basis to track and positionthe virtual object relative to the real-world object. For example, theaugmentation system 208 generates a plurality of vectors representingmovement of each of a plurality of skeletal joints throughout thesequence of frames. The augmentation system 208 compares the pluralityof vectors to identify a given vector that is associated with the leastamount of displacement or change along dimension one or all of thethree-dimensions. As an example, the arms or elbow joints may move muchmore and be associated with vectors that indicate a great amount ofdisplacement in 3D whereas the neck joint may move much less than theelbow joints and be associated with a vector that indicates minimaldisplacement in 3D. In this case, the augmentation system 208 selectsthe neck joint as the reference point to be used as a basis for trackinga virtual object.

In some embodiments, a user selects a position on the real-world objectdepicted in the video to be used as the reference point. In some cases,where multiple virtual objects are added to the video, multipledifferent reference points of the real-world object are used to trackeach of the virtual objects. For example, a first virtual object may betracked and repositioned based on movement of the neck joint and asecond virtual object may be tracked and repositioned based on movementof the torso or the knee joints. In this way, the different virtualobjects move in different ways relative to how the real-world objectmoves or based on how different portions of the real-world object move.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 is trained using amachine learning technique to predict or estimate a position on thereal-world object that is associated with the least movement or noise.The augmentation system 208 processes multiple training images thatdepict the same type of real-world object. Once the augmentation system208 recognizes that the real-world object received in a new videomatches one of the training real-world objects, the augmentation system208 retrieves the reference point position along the training real-worldobjects and places the reference point on the new real-world object tobe used as a basis for tracking the virtual object.

In some examples, if the real-world object moves to the right relativeto the camera or client device 102 in 3D space by a specified amount,the augmentation system 208 updates the position of the virtual objectto also move to the right in the video by the same specified amount.Similarly, if the real-world object moves to the left relative to thecamera or client device 102 in 3D space by a specified amount, theaugmentation system 208 updates the position of the virtual object toalso move to the left in the video by the same specified amount.

The augmentation system 208 computes an offset between a real-worldreference point corresponding to the real-world object and an initialposition of the virtual object. As the real-world object moves in agiven direction and along a given trajectory, the augmentation system208 adjusts or moves the virtual object along the same direction andtrajectory in a way that maintains the same offset relative to thereal-world reference point corresponding to the real-world object. Insome cases, the virtual object mimics movement of the real-world object.For example, if the real-world object turns around about its own axis,the virtual object also responds by turning around about its own axis ata same rate as the real-world object.

The augmentation system 208 animates the virtual object (e.g., aselected avatar) based on a movement vector. The movement vector can beselected by the user from a user interface that displays iconsrepresenting different movement vectors. In another example, themovement vector can be received by a first user from a second user in acommunication (e.g., a chat message). The movement vector stores changesin 3D positioning, acceleration, direction and speed for each of aplurality of skeletal joints that are identified, detected and trackedin a video that depicts a person (user). The skeletal joints in themovement vector are mapped to a skeletal rig of the virtual object tocause the virtual object to mimic movement of the corresponding skeletaljoints stored in the movement vector. As an example, if the movementvector indicates that the arm joints moved up from one 3D coordinate toa second 3D coordinate at a certain distance and at a certain speed overthe course of a given time interval (e.g., 3 seconds), the augmentationsystem 208 similarly causes the arm portion of the skeletal rig of thevirtual object to move up from one 3D coordinate to a second 3Dcoordinate at the same certain distance and at the same certain speedover the course of the given time interval. The augmentation system 208similarly moves each of the other portions of the skeletal rig toanimate the avatar to mimic the movement of the skeletal joints storedin the movement vector.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 receives input from afirst user to record a new movement. As an example, the first user canpress and hold a record option that is displayed. While the recordoption continues to be held pressed, any skeletal joints that aredetected in a video that depicts a person are identified and their 3Dmovement is tracked. During recording of the movement vector, an avatarrig is updated in real-time based on tracking of the skeletal joints.Namely, as the skeletal joints are tracked and moved, the augmentationsystem 208 updates the avatar skeletal rig to move the avatar (displayedon screen with the person in the video) in the same manner as thetracked skeletal joints of the user. Upon releasing the record option(e.g., after 3 seconds), the tracked 3D movement of the identifiedskeletal joints is stored in a first movement vector. The period of timeduring which the movement is tracked and recorded sets the given timeinterval of the movement stored in the first movement vector. As anotherexample, the first user can tap a record option which can be a toggleoption. After the record option is tapped, any skeletal joints that aredetected in a video that depicts a person are identified and their 3Dmovement is tracked. Upon receiving a subsequent tap or selection of therecord option (e.g., after 3 seconds), the tracked 3D movement of theidentified skeletal joints is stored in the first movement vector.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 presents a 3D avatartogether with the person in the video. The 3D avatar can mimic movementsof the person in the video while the augmentation system 208 tracks andstores the movements of the skeletal joints. Namely, motion of the 3Davatar is updated based on the real-time tracking of the skeletal jointsof the person in the video. After the recording terminates, the 3Davatar stops mimicking the movement of the person that is depicted insubsequent frames (e.g., the 3D avatar is no longer updated based on howthe skeletal joints are tracked). Instead, the 3D avatar is animated tomimic the previously captured movements of the person. Specifically,after the movement of the person stops being recorded, the 3D avatarmotion is updated in looped manner based on the movements stored in themovement vector that was recorded. Namely, the 3D avatar can initiallybe presented and animated to be synchronized and mimic movements of theperson in a first set of frames (e.g., a given time interval or periodof 3 seconds of video) after a record option is selected. In this case,the 3D avatar is updated based on the real-time tracking of the skeletaljoints. Then, in a second subsequent set of frames or in a second video,the 3D avatar stops mimicking movements of the person that is depictedin the second set of frames and specifically the 3D avatar stops beingupdated based on real-time movements of the skeletal joints. Instead,the 3D avatar, in the second set of frames or the second video, isupdated and is moved based on the previously stored movement vectorwhich results in continuously looping an animation of the movement ofthe 3D avatar.

The 3D avatar's placement in 3D space can be repositioned by the user.While the 3D avatar is being repositioned, the 3D avatar continues toloop the animation of the movement stored in the movement vectorrepresenting the previously captured movement of the person. As anexample, in the first set of frames, the 3D avatar is overlaid on top ofthe person in the first set of frames and moves in the same way as theperson in the first set of frames. The 3D avatar, after movement of theperson stops being recorded, can be placed next to the person depictedin the second set of frames. The person in the second set of frames canappear to look at the 3D avatar while the 3D avatar performs themovement of the person that was recorded in the first set of frames.Namely, in the second set of frames, the person can be static orstationary and may not move while the 3D avatar is animated to move inthe same manner as the person previously moved in the first set offrames.

In one example, the 3D avatar presented in the first set of frames whilemovement of the person was tracked to generate the first movement vectorcan be different from the 3D avatar presented in the second set offrames. Namely, a first 3D avatar (e.g., a first virtual animal, such asa monkey) can be overlaid on top of the person in the first set offrames and can mimic movement of the person in the first set of frameswhile the movement is being recorded in the movement vector.Subsequently, the user can select a second 3D avatar (e.g., a humanlooking avatar). The second 3D avatar can be animated based on themovement vector generated based on movement of the person in the firstset of frames. The second 3D avatar can be animated in a second set offrames while the person is positioned in 3D space next to or at someother location in the video (e.g., staring or looking at the second 3Davatar performing the previously captured motion). The second 3D avatarcan be moved around by the user in 3D space and while the second 3Davatar is moved around, the second 3D avatar continues to be animated tomimic the previously captured motion of the person in the first set offrames.

In some embodiments, input can be received from the user to capture anew image or new video that depicts the person in the second set offrames together with the second 3D avatar that is being animated tomimic the movement of the person captured in the previous set of frames.For example, an image or video can be captured of the person staringmotionless at the 3D avatar that is being animated to mimic thepreviously captured motion. The image or video can be shared with one ormore other users, such as in a chat interface.

In some embodiments, the 3D avatar can be stored in conjunction with themovement vector among a set of animated 3D avatars. A set of animated 3Davatars can be presented to the user to select and share with anotheruser. The animated avatars can be presented in a list or in some otherform. Each avatar is presented simultaneously with the other avatars andis animated in accordance with the movement vector associated with therespective avatar. The user can tap on a given animated avatar to sharewith another user.

The augmentation system 208 allows the first user to send acommunication to a second user that includes the first movement vector.In some cases, the communication sent to the second user includes theimage or video of the person and the animated avatar performing themotion according to the first movement vector. Once the second userreceives the communication and opens the movement vector, the seconduser can preview the movement specified by the first movement vector.The second user can then apply the movement specified by the firstmovement vector to a second avatar selected by the second user. In thisway, any motion recorded by the first user in the first movement vectorcan be applied by the second user to an alternate avatar selected by thesecond user.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 presents a list ofmovement vectors to the user. Each movement vector is represented withthe same or different virtual object to show the user what the movementlooks like. In some cases, the virtual object is a human skeleton ofwhich the skeletal joints move in the manner the skeletal joints move inthe movement vector. The user can tap or select a given movement vectorfrom the list. An avatar or virtual object can then be selected by theuser and the selected movement vector is applied to the selected avataror virtual object to cause the avatar or virtual object to move in thesame way as the skeletal joints in the selected movement vector. Theanimated avatar or virtual object is placed in a video that depicts ordoes not depict the user and can be shared with one or more other users.The movement vectors included in the list can include movement vectorsreceived in communications from one or more other users.

In some embodiments, the second user can augment or modify the movementspecified in the first movement vector. As an example, the second usercan select an option to add the second avatar to a real-time video feedcaptured by the client device of the second user. The augmentationsystem 208 presents an option to the second user to apply the firstmovement vector received from the first user to the second avatar. Inresponse to applying the first movement vector to the second avatar, thesecond avatar is animated to loop the motion specified in the firstmovement vector. A record option is presented on the video that depictsthe second avatar. In response to selecting the record option, theaugmentation system 208 identifies a person in the video and tracksmovement of the skeletal joints of the identified person. The secondavatar can stop being animated based on the first movement vector andcan start mimicking or being moved based on the real-time tracking ofthe skeletal joints. In another example, two avatars can be presented onthe real-time video feed in response to receiving the user selection ofthe record option. The second avatar can continue to be displayed andloop the animation based on the first movement vector and an additionalavatar can be displayed together with the second avatar where theadditional avatar moves based on the real-time tracking and recording ofthe skeletal joints of the person in the video. Specifically, theaugmentation system 208 updates movements of the second avatar in alooped manner based on the first movement vector and updates movementsof an additional avatar based on movements of a user being tracked inreal-time based on skeletal joint tracking.

The augmentation system 208 records the movements of the identifiedperson and generates a second movement vector in response to receivinginput form the second user to stop recording the movements. For example,when the second user releases the record option, the augmentation system208 stores the movements of the skeletal joints captured between thetime the record option was pressed and the time the record option wasreceived in a second movement vector. The augmentation system 208presents an option to the second user to modify the first movementvector based on the second movement vector. Specifically, an on-screenoption is presented asking the user to specify whether the secondmovement vector should be prepended to the first movement vector (e.g.,to insert all the movements of the second movement vector ahead of themovements specified by the first movement vector) or whether the secondmovement vector should be appended to the first movement vector (e.g.,to insert all the movements of the second movement vector after themovements specified by the first movement vector).

In response to receiving user input that selects the prepend option, thefirst movement vector is modified by copying the second movement vectorto a beginning of the first movement vector. As a result, a 3D avatarthat is animated based on the modified or updated first movement vectorloops animation of movement first specified by the second movementvector and then the first movement vector. Namely, the 3D avatar iscaused to perform all the movements specified by the second movementvector and then to perform all the movement specified by the firstmovement vector. In response to receiving user input that selects theappend option, the first movement vector is modified by copying thesecond movement vector to an ending of the first movement vector. As aresult, a 3D avatar that is animated based on the modified or updatedfirst movement vector loops animation of movement first specified by thefirst movement vector and then the second movement vector. Namely, the3D avatar is caused to perform all the movements specified by the firstmovement vector and then to perform all the movement specified by thesecond movement vector.

As another example, the second user can record the second movementvector without modifying the first movement vector. Namely, after thesecond user records the second movement vector, the additional avatarthat is presented with the second avatar stops tracking and mimickingmotion of the skeletal joints being tracked and begins being animated toloop animation of the second movement vector. As a result, the seconduser is presented with a real-time video feed of multiple avatarsperforming movements and looping animations of movements specified intheir associated movement vectors. For example, the second avatar can beanimated to loop the movements specified in the first movement vectorreceived from the first user and the additional avatar can be animatedto loop movements specified by the second movement vector that was newlycreated the second user. The second user can move around in 3D space themultiple avatars in the video. As each avatar is moved in 3D space, theavatar continues to loop the animation of the movement specified in themovement vector associated with the respective avatar.

The second user can capture an image or video of a selected avatarperforming movements according to the modified or updated first movementvector. The second user can then send a communication back to the firstuser or to a third user that includes the updated first movement vectoror the video that depicts the selected avatar (and optionally one ormore persons) performing the movements of the modified first movementvector. The second user can capture an image or video of multipleavatars performing movements according to respective movement vectors.

The augmentation system 208, comprising multiple redundant trackingsub-systems 604A-C that enable seamless transitions between suchtracking sub-systems, obtains sensor information from multiple trackingapproaches stored while a video is captured and merges such multipletracking approach sensor information into a single tracking system. Thissystem is able to combine tracking virtual objects with 6DoF and 3DoF(degree of freedom) through combining and transitioning between storedsensor information from multiple tracking systems based on theavailability of tracking indicia tracked by the tracking systems. As theindicia tracked by any one tracking sub-system becomes unavailableduring capture of the video, the augmentation system 208 seamlesslyswitches between tracking in 6DoF and 3DoF, thereby providing the userwith an uninterrupted experience. For example, in the case of visualtracking systems (e.g., NFT, SLAM), tracking indicia typically analyzedto determine orientation may be replaced with gyroscopic trackingindicia from a gyroscopic tracking system. This would thereby enabletransitioning between tracking in 6Dof and 3DoF based on theavailability of tracking indicia.

In some example embodiments, to transition between tracking in 6DoF and3DoF, the augmentation system 208 gathers and stores tracking indiciawithin a tracking matrix that includes translation indicia (e.g., up,down, left, right) and rotation indicia (e.g., pitch, yaw, roll). Thetranslation indicia gathered by an NFT system may thereby be extractedfrom the tracking matrix and utilized when future translation indiciagathered by the NFT system become inaccurate or unavailable. In themeantime, the rotation indicia continue to be provided by the gyroscope.In this way, when the mobile device loses tracking indicia, the trackedobjects that are presented in the three-dimensional space will not bechanged abruptly at the frame when the tracking indicia are lost.Subsequently, when the target tracking object reappears in the screen,and a new translation T₁ is obtained, the translation part of the viewmatrix will then be taking advantage of the new translation T₁, and useT₁-T₀ as the translation of the view matrix.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of theaugmentation system 208 in performing a process 700 for rendering avirtual object in a video. The process 700 may be embodied incomputer-readable instructions for execution by one or more processorssuch that the operations of the process 700 may be performed in part orin whole by the functional components of the augmentation system 208;accordingly, the process 700 is described below by way of example withreference thereto. However, in other embodiments at least some of theoperations of the process 700 may be deployed on various other hardwareconfigurations. The process 700 is therefore not intended to be limitedto the augmentation system 208.

At operation 701, the augmentation system 208 implemented by a clientdevice 102 associated with a first user receives a communication from asecond user. For example, a client device 102 of a second user transmitsa chat message to a first user that attaches or includes a movementvector recorded by the second user.

At operation 702, the augmentation system 208 retrieves from thecommunication a movement vector representing 3D movement of a set ofskeletal joints of the second user, as explained above. For example, thefirst user can open the chat message to obtain the movement vector thatwas recorded by the second user and that specifies the 3D positioning,speed and acceleration of the skeletal joints of the second user in agiven time interval (e.g., 3 seconds). As another example, the seconduser can generate the movement vector and upload the movement vector toa remote database. The remote database can provide an identifier for themovement vector back to the second user. In such cases, thecommunication provides an identifier of the movement vector. The firstuser client device 102 then accesses a remote database server andprovides the identifier of the movement vector to retrieve the movementvector that was generated by the second user.

At operation 703, the augmentation system 208 receives input thatselects a 3D avatar. For example, the augmentation system 208 presents alist of avatars or virtual objects on a display of a client device 102,and the first user taps or selects a given avatar or virtual object fromthe list. In some embodiments, in addition to or alternative toselecting a 3D avatar to apply the received movement vector, theaugmentation system 208 receives input to preview the motion representedby the movement vector. In such cases, the augmentation system 208presents a skeletal animation of the movement vector. In someembodiments, in addition to or alternative to selecting a 3D avatar toapply the received movement vector, the augmentation system 208 receivesinput to modify the movement vector. In such cases, the augmentationsystem 208 presents a graphical user interface that allows the user toappend a new movement vector to the received movement vector, prepend anew movement vector to the received movement vector, and/or delete orremove portions of the received movement vector. In some embodiments, inaddition to or alternative to selecting a 3D avatar to apply thereceived movement vector, the augmentation system 208 receives input togenerate a new movement vector. In such cases, the augmentation system208 presents a 3D avatar animated based on the received movement vectorand one or more additional avatars (e.g., a personalized avatar) thatmimics movements made by the user while such movements are beingrecorded into a new movement vector. The user can then share themovement vector received from the second user and the new movementvector with a third user. The third user can apply the received movementvectors to one or more avatars including a personalized avatar (e.g., anavatar that includes facial and body features that are similar to thefacial and body features of the third user) or to the avatars associatedwith the first and second users.

At operation 704, the augmentation system 208 animates the 3D avatar tomimic the 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of the second user.For example, the augmentation system 208 moves the skeletal rig portionsof the avatar (selected by the first user) corresponding to the skeletaljoints stored in the movement vector to mirror motion of the skeletaljoints of the second user over the given time period represented in themovement vector. Namely, the first user can choose an avatar to haveanimated in a looped manner to mimic motion of the second user capturedand stored in the movement vector received from the second user.

Referring back to FIG. 6 , the augmentation system 208 is configured torender and display virtual objects at a position in a three-dimensionalspace relative to a real-world object. In one example, the augmentationsystem 208 maintains a set of templates to generate virtual objects tobe displayed in the video. Upon receiving a selection of a template fromamong the set of templates, and a selection of a position in the video,the augmentation system 208 generates and assigns the virtual object tothe position within the three-dimensional space of the video.

The augmentation system 208 thereby tracks the position of the virtualobject relative to real-world objects in the video in thethree-dimensional space by one or more tracking systems in 6DoF. Forexample, the one or more tracking systems of the augmentation system 208collects and analyzes a set of tracking indicia (e.g., roll, pitch, yaw,natural features, etc.) in order to track the position of the virtualobject relative to real-world objects in the three-dimensional spacewith 6DoF. In such embodiments, the augmentation system 208 transitionsbetween tracking systems based on the availability of the trackedindicia to maintain consistent tracking in 6DoF.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 automatically tracksand adjusts movement and positioning of the virtual object (e.g., theanimated 3D avatar) relative to a real-world object that is a person.Namely, the augmentation system 208 processes the video to determinewhether a person is present in the video. In response to detectingpresence of a person in the video, the augmentation system 208automatically performs 3D skeleton tracking to determine various jointpositions and a 3D real-world coordinate of the person as a referencepoint. The augmentation system 208 then automatically starts adjustingmovement and placement of the virtual object based on the referencepoint of the person. As an example, the augmentation system 208 computesa set of 3D transforms of the 3D skeleton joints relative to the 3Dreference point. The 3D transforms are used to adjust the virtual object(character) in the same way as the 3D skeleton joints move in real time.In some cases, each 3D skeleton joint is mapped to a corresponding 3Dskeleton rig portion (joint) of an avatar. The 3D transform indicateshow the corresponding 3D skeleton rig joint of the avatar should move toreflect movement of the associated person's joint in 3D.

In some cases, the augmentation system 208 calculates the 3D pose of theperson in the video and applies the 3D pose to one or more virtualobjects so that the virtual objects mirror a pose and movement of theperson in 3D. As an example, motion of the person detected in the videois captured and tracked in real time and that same motion is applied toone or more virtual objects so that the one or more virtual objects movein 3D in a same or similar manner as the person. This motion or pose isrecorded for a given time interval or period (e.g., 3 seconds) andstored in a motion vector. The motion vector can then be applied to thesame virtual object or any other suitable avatar or virtual object.

In some embodiments, the augmentation system 208 fails to detect aperson in the video. In such cases, the augmentation system 208 presentsa list of detected objects that are present in the video to a user onthe client device 102. The augmentation system 208 receives a userselection of a given detected object (e.g., a cat) and in response, theaugmentation system 208 computes a reference position in 3D space of theselected detected object and adjusts the positioning and movement of thevirtual object relative to the reference position. In this way, as thereference position indicates that the object (e.g., the person or theselected real-world object) moves in a particular direction and at aparticular speed, the augmentation system 208 immediately andautomatically updates the position and movement of the virtual object inthe same direction and speed. In one example, the real-world object mayjump displacing the 3D reference position by a specified distance alongthe y-axis. In response, the augmentation system 208 updates the virtualobject position to also jump and to be displayed by the same specifieddistance along the y-axis as the real-world object.

Upon detecting an interruption of one or more indicia from among the setof indicia tracked, such that tracking in 6DoF becomes unreliable orimpossible, the augmentation system 208 transitions to tracking thevirtual object in the three-dimensional space in 3DoF in order toprevent an interruption of the display. For example, the augmentationsystem 208 transitions from a first tracking system (or first set oftracking systems among the set of tracking systems) to a second trackingsystem among the set of tracking systems (or second set of trackingsystems). In one example, the second tracking system is capable oftracking the virtual object with 3DoF in the three-dimensional space,based on the tracking indicia available.

In some example embodiments, the set of tracking systems of theaugmentation system 208 includes a gyroscopic tracking system, an NFTsystem, and a SLAM tracking system. Each tracking system among the setof tracking systems may analyze tracking indicia in order to track aposition of a virtual object within a three-dimensional space relativeto a real-world object reference position. For example, to track avirtual object with 6DoF, the augmentation system 208 may require atleast six tracking indicia to be available. As tracking indicia becomeobstructed or unavailable for various reasons, the augmentation system208 may transition between the available tracking systems among the setof tracking systems in order to maintain 6DoF, or transition to 3DoF ifnecessary.

It will be readily appreciated that these augmented reality systems 124serve to provide consistent rendered virtual objects in real-worldthree-dimensional spaces in a wide variety of environments andsituations. In many applications it can be desirable to provide firmconsistency for the positions of these virtual objects within a video ofa real-world scene. This can involve the recognition and use of aspecific, fixed reference point (e.g., a fixed surface or object) in thereal-world scene.

To ensure firm consistency in the location of virtual objects,annotation data in the example form of a presentation “lens” that isspecific for the three-dimensional object tracking and rendering in avideo clip described herein may be employed. In particular, a motioncapture 603 is a presentation lens that identifies and references areal-world object (e.g., a person) for generating and recording a motionor movement vector representing motion of the real-world object over agiven time period or for modifying a received movement vector with anewly captured and generated movement vector. Motion capture 603 may bea presentation lens that is activated when a user is recording motionand when the user selects a given movement vector (representingpreviously captured motion) to be applied to animate a virtual objectthat is inserted into a video. As shown, the motion capture 603 can be aspecific portion or submodule within a rendering module 602 of anoverall augmentation system 208, as set forth above.

The 3DoF pose along with the video clip frame is provided to a surfacetracking component of the augmentation system 208 where features or keypoints of interest in the video frame are extracted and tracked todetermine the way they move across video frames fusing the orientationinformation from the 3DoF pose to generate a resulting 6DoF pose.Exemplary details of how this fusion can be performed is described inBenezra et al. U.S. Pub. 2018/0061072, entitled “Systems and methods forsimultaneous localization and mapping,” which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

The 6DoF pose from the surface tracking component is then provided torendering module 602 in order to position the camera such that thevirtual objects (e.g., an animated avatar) are rendered as if they wereplaced in the real-world during the original video capture. Renderingmodule 602 synchronizes changes in the placement and post of the virtualobject with changes in the camera position and orientation in thecaptured scene.

The use of such a motion capture 603 as part of an overall virtualrendering can result in presentations that are more dynamicallyconvincing even as one or more object positions or the camera anglechange throughout the video.

In one aspect, the augmentation system 208 provides a graphical userinterface for receiving user input to add virtual animated objects toaugment a video. The graphical user interface may include a toolbar orpane (which may be partially transparent or may be opaque). The toolbaror pane may present, in the graphical user interface, a plurality ofvirtual animated objects by way of icons for each virtual animatedobject. Each virtual animated object is animated to represent motionstored in a corresponding movement vector.

In some cases, the same movement vector is applied to each virtualanimated object in which case all of the virtual animated objects areanimated to move in the same manner. In some cases, a first movementvector is applied to a first set of the virtual animated objects and asecond movement vector is applied to a second virtual animated object.In such circumstances, the first set of virtual animated objects areanimated to move in the same first way based on the first movementvector and the second set of virtual animated objects are animated inthe same second way based on the second movement vector.

The user can interact with the toolbar or pane to select a given virtualanimated object for placement in the video. Once placed in the video,the graphical user interface allows the user to move the virtualanimated object around a given frame. Once the virtual animated objectis placed at a selected position, a 3D offset is computed relative to a3D reference position of a given real-world object (e.g., a person).This 3D offset continues to be tracked and computed in order tocontinuously adjust a 3D position of the virtual animated object basedon movement of the real-world object.

After the virtual object is added to a video, the virtual object can bemodified or manipulated in various ways in 3DoF or 6DoF. Examples of howvirtual objects can be manipulated are discussed in commonly-owned,commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/581,994, filedApr. 28, 2017, entitled “AUGMENTED REALITY OBJECT MANIPULATION”, whichis hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In some cases, the user can select a random number of identical animatedaugmented reality items to be added. In such cases, the motion capture603 evenly distributes the augmented reality items (e.g., 4 duplicationsof the augmented reality items) around or surrounding the real-worldobject. Once a specified number of virtual objects or augmented realityitems surround the real-world object (e.g., after 4 duplications of thevirtual objects surround the real-world object), the motion capture 603may place additional virtual objects (e.g., a fifth duplication) infront of a given one of the virtual objects. This process continuesuntil all of the duplications are added to the video. Then the motioncapture 603 tracks and updates movement of each duplication of thevirtual objects in an identical manner to mimic movement of thereal-world object that was previously captured and stored in a movementvector.

The maximum number of identical animated virtual objects that can beadded to the video can be set based on the type of virtual objects thatare added. For example, virtual objects that are of a certain first type(e.g., animals or objects that have a certain first size) may beduplicated a first number of times (e.g., 8 times). Virtual objects thatare of a certain second type (e.g., avatars representing a user orobjects that have a certain second size, larger than the first size) maybe duplicated a second number of times (e.g., 4 times).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations of the augmentation system208 in performing a process 800 for rendering a virtual object in avideo, according to certain example embodiments. The process 800 may beembodied in computer-readable instructions for execution by one or moreprocessors such that the operations of the process 800 may be performedin part or in whole by the functional components of the augmentationsystem 208; accordingly, the process 800 is described below by way ofexample with reference thereto. However, it shall be appreciated that atleast some of the operations of the process 800 may be deployed onvarious other hardware configurations, and the process 800 is notintended to be limited to the augmentation system 208.

At operation 802, the augmentation system 208 receives an input toactivate a motion capture. For example, the second user can select anon-screen option to begin recording movement of the second user (e.g.,to track 3D movement of skeletal joints of the person over a specifiedtime period) and stores the movement in a first movement vector.

At operation 804, the augmentation system 208 detects a 3D referencepoint of a real-world object depicted in a video (e.g., a real-timevideo feed being captured by a client device 102). For example, theaugmentation system 208 selects one or more skeletal joints of a persondepicted in the video and computes a 3D coordinate of the selectedskeletal joints as the 3D reference point.

At operation 806, the augmentation system 208 orients the virtual objectbased on the 3D reference point. For example, the augmentation system208 places the virtual object at a specified distance away from the 3Dreference point. The specified distance can be predetermined or selectedby the second user or determined based on the type of real-world objectassociated with the 3D reference point. For example, a surface type ofreal-world object may be associated with a first distance away fromwhich the virtual object is placed. As another example, a real-worldmoving object (e.g., a car or animal) may be associated with a seconddistance away from which the virtual object is placed.

At operation 807, the augmentation system 208 applies the first movementvector to the virtual object (e.g., a virtual character or 3D avatar).For example, the augmentation system 208 stores movement of a personduring a period of time (e.g., a threshold of 3 seconds or a periodcorresponding to a duration of time selected by the second user throughinteraction with a record option) in a given set of frames. The movementis then applied to loop animation of the virtual object to mimic themovement of the person in a subsequent set of frames. Specifically, thesecond user records a first three second video of his/her movementsfirst and such movements are used to generate the first motion ormovement vector. This first motion or movement vector is then used in asecond real-time video to loop animation of a virtual object mimickingthe motion corresponding to the movement or motion vector. In somecases, the first and second videos are all part of the same real-timevideo feed and the movement of the user are captured and stored in amovement vector without recording the video. Rather the movements arecaptured and stored by analyzing and storing skeletal joint movements ina given time period (e.g., a time period specified by the second user bytoggling a record/stop option).

At operation 808, the augmentation system 208 animates the virtualobject with respect to the real-world object depicted in the video. Forexample, as the real-world object is stationary and does not move aroundin 3D space (or as the real-world object moves around independently ofthe virtual object), the virtual object is animated to mimic movement ofthe person previously captured and stored in the first movement vector.Specifically, after the second user records movements performed in agiven time period to generate the first movement vector, the firstmovement vector is used to generate an animated virtual object thatloops mimicking such movements. The animated virtual object (performingthe previously captured movement of the user in a looped manner) can bedragged around and placed anywhere in the video regardless andindependently of any further motion performed by the user.

At operation 809, the augmentation system 208 captures a second movementvector. As an example, the second user sends the first movement vectorin a communication to a first user. The first user can then similarlyrecord a new or second movement vector by selecting a record motionoption. Specifically, the first user can select a second virtual objectto be displayed in a real-time feed and to mimic movement of a persondepicted in the real-time feed. The second virtual object can representmotion of the person (e.g., is updated based on tracking of the skeletaljoints of the person) while the record motion option is activated. Afterthe record motion option is no longer activated, the previously capturedmotion is stored in a second movement vector and the second virtualobject starts to animate the previously captured motion in a loopedmanner.

At operation 810, the augmentation system 208 updates the first movementvector based on the second movement vector to modify the virtual objectmotion. For example, after the first user finishes recording the secondmovement vector, the first user can prepend or append the secondmovement vector to the first movement vector. After the user selects anoption to prepend or append the second movement vector to modify thefirst movement vector, the second virtual object now is animated basedon the modified first movement vector.

Alternatively, the second movement vector can be stored independently ofmodifying the first movement vector. In such cases, a first virtualobject can be presented in the real-time video feed and can be animatedbased on the first movement vector received from the second user (e.g.,the first virtual object loops animation mimicking previously capturedand stored movement of the second user) and the second virtual objectcan be presented in the real-time video feed (together with the firstvirtual object) and can be animated based on the second movement vector(e.g., the second virtual object loops animation mimicking previouslycaptured and stored movement of the first user).

FIGS. 9-11 are diagrams depicting an object rendered within athree-dimensional space by the augmentation system 208, according toexample embodiments. As shown in FIG. 9 , a graphical user interface 900is presented on a display of a client device 102 of a second user. Thegraphical user interface 900 presents an option 902 to start motioncapture and provides a prompt indicating that the second user can recorda set of moves, send the set of moves to a first user, and show up in afriend's newsfeed. In response to receiving input from the second userselecting the option 902 to start motion capture, the augmentationsystem 208 begins recording movement of the second user and generates afirst movement vector, as illustrated in the example user interfaces ofFIG. 10 .

As shown in FIG. 10 , a graphical user interface 1000 is presented on adisplay of the client device 102 of the second user, in which areal-world object 1002 (e.g., a person or user) is shown together with avirtual object 1001 (e.g., a 3D avatar). As shown in interface 1000, thereal-world object 1002 is directly behind and may be obscured (at leastpartially) by the virtual object 1001 that is overlaid on top of thereal-world object 1002. Namely, the size of the virtual object 1001 cancorrespond to the size of the real-world object 1002. This way, as theuser performs movements, the virtual object 1001 is moved in the samemanner so the user can visualize what the virtual object 1001 looks likewhen mimicking the user's movements. The second user can control whenthe movements the user performs are stored in a movement vector tosubsequently loop animation of the movements by the virtual object 1001by interacting with the record start/stop option 1003.

The record start/stop option 1003 is also presented in the graphicaluser interface 1000. In response to receiving a user selection of therecord start/stop option 1003, the augmentation system 208 beginstracking movement of the skeletal joints of the real-world object 1002.For example, the real-world object 1002 is in a first pose in thegraphical user interface 1000 and moves to a second pose as shown by thereal-world object pose 1012 in the graphical user interface 1010. Whilethe real-world object 1002 moves in the sequence of frames from thegraphical user interface 1000 to the graphical user interface 1010, thevirtual object 1001 mimics the movement of the skeletal joints of theperson. For example, as shown in graphical user interface 1000, thevirtual object 1001 is posed in the same way to mimic the pose of thereal-world object 1002. As shown in the graphical user interface 1010,the pose of the virtual object 1011 is updated to reflect the movementof the real-world object 1012 in the second pose. Namely, the virtualobject 1001 moves and is animated while the movement of the skeletaljoints of the real-world object 1002 is being recorded. In one example,a circular progress bar 1090 is presented on the record start/stopoption 1003 to indicate progress of the recording (e.g., to inform thesecond user about how long the recorded movements are). In some cases,the progress bar terminates at five seconds which limits the duration ofmotion that is captured and stored in the movement vector.

In response to receiving a user selection of the record start/stopoption 1003, after the movement starts being recorded, the augmentationsystem 208 stops recording the movement. Any movement of the skeletaljoints across the sequence of frames during the period of time betweenwhen the recording starts and the recording terminates, is stored in afirst movement vector. In response to receiving the user selection ofthe option 1003 to stop recording movement, the virtual object 1001stops mimicking movement of the real-world object 1002 and turns into ananimated virtual object. At this point, the virtual object 1001transitions to looping an animation of the movement in the firstmovement vector. Namely, the virtual object 1001 begins looping throughthe movements the virtual object 1001 made while the movements of thereal-world object 1002 were recorded. The looping may be presented in adedicated screen that shows different virtual objects looping animationaccording to their associated movement vectors. Alternatively, thelooping may be presented in a camera view showing a real-time camerafeed of a real-world scene.

The second user can send a communication to a first user that includesthe first movement vector. The communication can also include a video orimage that depicts the second user together with the virtual object1001. The second user in the video may be in one continuous pose or aset of poses while the virtual object 1001 loops animation of the motionspecified in the first movement vector. The first user can open thecommunication and access the first movement vector to apply the movementspecified in the first movement vector to a second avatar (a secondvirtual object). A graphical user interface presented on a client device102 of the first user is shown and described in connection with FIG. 11.

As shown in FIG. 11 , a graphical user interface 1100 is presented inwhich an animated virtual object 1102 can be placed by the first useranywhere in 3D space relative to the position of the real-world object1102. Namely, after the first user receives and accesses the firstmovement vector from the second user, the graphical user interface 1100of FIG. 11 is presented to allow the first user to place an animatedvirtual object 1102 anywhere on the video. The animated virtual object1102 loops animation of a motion specified in the first movement vectorreceived from the second user. While the animated virtual object 1102 ismoved around in 3D space, the animated virtual object 1102 loops throughmovements specified by the first movement vector. Namely, the animatedvirtual object 1102 loops through movements that mimic movements of thereal-world object 1002 that were previously captured by the second user.The real-world object 1101 can be in any pose and be stationary ormoving in a different manner than the movements of the animated virtualobject 1102.

As an example, the real-world object 1101 stands in a position andappears to stare or look towards the direction in which the animatedvirtual object 1102 is placed. As shown in the graphical user interface1110, the animated virtual object 1102 is moved automatically from afirst pose (shown in graphical user interface 1100) to a second pose(graphical user interface 1110) by the animated virtual object 1112. Inthis example, the real-world object 1101 performs one set of motionwhile the animated virtual object moves and changes poses to mimicmovement specified in the first movement vector received from the seconduser.

As shown, the movement of the animated virtual object 1102 selected bythe first user mirrors and is the same as the movement of the virtualobject 1001 presented to the second user while capturing the motion.Namely, the interface 1000 shows the first virtual object 1001 in afirst pose and this pose is recorded among a sequence of poses in thefirst movement vector. When the first movement vector is applied to thevirtual object 1102, the virtual object 1102 performs the identical poseas the first virtual object 1001. The interface 1010 shows the firstvirtual object 1011 in a second pose that follows sequentially the firstpose performed by the first virtual object 1001. This second pose isrecorded among a sequence of poses in the first movement vector as apose performed after the first pose. When the first movement vector isapplied to the virtual object 1102, the virtual object 1112 performs theidentical pose as the first virtual object 1011, as shown in interface1110. More specifically, the same sequence of poses performed by a firstvirtual object (e.g., the pose transitions of the virtual object 1001shown from interface 1000 to interface 1010) selected by the second userare stored in the first movement vector and are applied to a secondvirtual object selected by the first user (e.g., the pose transitions ofthe virtual object 1102 shown from interface 1100 to interface 1110 areidentical to the pose transitions of the virtual object 1001 frominterface 1000 to interface 1010). In this way, the movements recordedby one user can be applied to a virtual object selected by another user.

A record option 1113 is also presented to allow the first user to recordmovement in a new movement vector or to replace the movement recorded inthe first movement vector received from the second user. In response toreceiving user input that selects the record option 1113, a new virtualobject can be presented to mimic skeletal joint movements of the person1101 presented in the real-time video feed. In some cases, in responseto receiving user input that selects the record option 1113, the virtualobject 1102 stops being animated based on the first movement vector andstarts mimicking skeletal joint movements of the person 1101 presentedin the real-time video feed. The skeletal joint movements are trackedand stored in a second movement vector after the first user selects anoption to terminate the recording of the motion. A prompt may bepresented asking the user to indicate whether the second movement vectoris to be prepended, appended or stored independently of the firstmovement vector. The new virtual object that is presented can startbeing animated based on the second movement vector to loop the movementsperformed by the person over the time period the motion was recorded.Alternatively, the virtual object 1102 starts being animated based on amodified version of the first movement vector (e.g., if the secondmovement vector is appended to the first movement vector, the virtualobject 1102 starts looping through movements of the first movementvector followed by movements of the second movement vector).

Multiple virtual objects can be presented simultaneously in FIG. 11where each virtual object performs motion or is animated to loop throughmotion specified in a respective movement vector. For example, a firstvirtual object can be presented and positioned in 3D space by the firstuser, where the first virtual object loops through animation of movementspecified by a first movement vector received from the second user.Also, a second virtual object can be presented and positioned in 3Dspace by the first user, where the second virtual object loops throughanimation of movement specified by a second movement vector. A thirdvirtual object can be presented and positioned in 3D space by the firstuser, where the third virtual object loops through animation of movementspecified by a combination of the first and second movement vectors.

Software Architecture

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an example software architecture1206, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described. FIG. 12 is a non-limiting example of asoftware architecture and it will be appreciated that many otherarchitectures may be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. The software architecture 1206 may execute on hardwaresuch as machine 1300 of FIG. 13 that includes, among other things,processors 1304, memory 1314, and input/output (I/O) components 1318. Arepresentative hardware layer 1252 is illustrated and can represent, forexample, the machine 1300 of FIG. 13 . The representative hardware layer1252 includes a processing unit 1254 having associated executableinstructions 1204. Executable instructions 1204 represent the executableinstructions of the software architecture 1206, including implementationof the methods, components, and so forth described herein. The hardwarelayer 1252 also includes memory and/or storage modules memory/storage1256, which also have executable instructions 1204. The hardware layer1252 may also comprise other hardware 1258.

In the example architecture of FIG. 12 , the software architecture 1206may be conceptualized as a stack of layers where each layer providesparticular functionality. For example, the software architecture 1206may include layers such as an operating system 1202, libraries 1220,applications 1216, frameworks/middleware 1218, and a presentation layer1214. Operationally, the applications 1216 and/or other componentswithin the layers may invoke API calls 1208 through the software stackand receive messages 1212 in response to the API calls 1208. The layersillustrated are representative in nature and not all softwarearchitectures have all layers. For example, some mobile or specialpurpose operating systems may not provide a frameworks/middleware 1218,while others may provide such a layer. Other software architectures mayinclude additional or different layers.

The operating system 1202 may manage hardware resources and providecommon services. The operating system 1202 may include, for example, akernel 1222, services 1224, and drivers 1226. The kernel 1222 may act asan abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers.For example, the kernel 1222 may be responsible for memory management,processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management,networking, security settings, and so on. The services 1224 may provideother common services for the other software layers. The drivers 1226are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlyinghardware. For instance, the drivers 1226 include display drivers, cameradrivers, Bluetooth® drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communicationdrivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers,audio drivers, power management drivers, and so forth depending on thehardware configuration.

The libraries 1220 provide a common infrastructure that is used by theapplications 1216 and/or other components and/or layers. The libraries1220 provide functionality that allows other software components toperform tasks in an easier fashion than to interface directly with theunderlying operating system 1202 functionality (e.g., kernel 1222,services 1224 and/or drivers 1226). The libraries 1220 may includesystem libraries 1244 (e.g., C standard library) that may providefunctions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulationfunctions, mathematical functions, and the like. In addition, thelibraries 1220 may include API libraries 1246 such as media libraries(e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of variousmedia format such as MPREG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG), graphicslibraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework that may be used to rendertwo-dimensional and three-dimensional in a graphic content on adisplay), database libraries (e.g., SQLite that may provide variousrelational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit that mayprovide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 1220may also include a wide variety of other libraries 1248 to provide manyother APIs to the applications 1216 and other softwarecomponents/modules.

The frameworks/middleware 1218 (also sometimes referred to asmiddleware) provide a higher-level common infrastructure that may beused by the applications 1216 and/or other software components/modules.For example, the frameworks/middleware 1218 may provide various graphicuser interface (GUI) functions, high-level resource management,high-level location services, and so forth. The frameworks/middleware1218 may provide a broad spectrum of other APIs that may be utilized bythe applications 1216 and/or other software components/modules, some ofwhich may be specific to a particular operating system 1202 or platform.

The applications 1216 include built-in applications 1238 and/orthird-party applications 1240. Examples of representative built-inapplications 1238 may include, but are not limited to, a contactsapplication, a browser application, a book reader application, alocation application, a media application, a messaging application,and/or a game application. Third-party applications 1240 may include anapplication developed using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software developmentkit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of the particular platform,and may be mobile software running on a mobile operating system such asIOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or other mobile operating systems. Thethird-party applications 1240 may invoke the API calls 1208 provided bythe mobile operating system (such as operating system 1202) tofacilitate functionality described herein.

The applications 1216 may use built-in operating system functions (e.g.,kernel 1222, services 1224, and/or drivers 1226), libraries 1220, andframeworks/middleware 1218 to create user interfaces to interact withusers of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, in some systemsinteractions with a user may occur through a presentation layer, such aspresentation layer 1214. In these systems, the application/component“logic” can be separated from the aspects of the application/componentthat interact with a user.

Machine

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 1300,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Specifically, FIG. 13 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine1300 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions1310 (e.g., software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, orother executable code) for causing the machine 1300 to perform any oneor more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed. As such,the instructions 1310 may be used to implement modules or componentsdescribed herein. The instructions 1310 transform the general,non-programmed machine 1300 into a particular machine 1300 programmed tocarry out the described and illustrated functions in the mannerdescribed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 1300 operates as astandalone device or may be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines.In a networked deployment, the machine 1300 may operate in the capacityof a server machine or a client machine in a server-client networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. The machine 1300 may comprise, but not be limitedto, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), atablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment media system, acellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearable device(e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smart appliance),other smart devices, a web appliance, a network router, a networkswitch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executing theinstructions 1310, sequentially or otherwise, that specify actions to betaken by machine 1300. Further, while only a single machine 1300 isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include acollection of machines that individually or jointly execute theinstructions 1310 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

The machine 1300 may include processors 1304, memory memory/storage1306, and I/O components 1318, which may be configured to communicatewith each other such as via a bus 1302. In an example embodiment, theprocessors 1304 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor,or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, aprocessor 1308 and a processor 1312 that may execute the instructions1310. The term “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors1304 that may comprise two or more independent processors (sometimesreferred to as “cores”) that may execute instructions contemporaneously.Although FIG. 13 shows multiple processors 1304, the machine 1300 mayinclude a single processor with a single core, a single processor withmultiple cores (e.g., a multi-core processor), multiple processors witha single core, multiple processors with multiple cores, or anycombination thereof.

The memory/storage 1306 may include a memory 1314, such as a mainmemory, or other memory storage, and a storage unit 1316, bothaccessible to the processors 1304 such as via the bus 1302. The storageunit 1316 and memory 1314 store the instructions 1310 embodying any oneor more of the methodologies or functions described herein. Theinstructions 1310 may also reside, completely or partially, within thememory 1314, within the storage unit 1316, within at least one of theprocessors 1304 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or anysuitable combination thereof, during execution thereof by the machine1300. Accordingly, the memory 1314, the storage unit 1316, and thememory of processors 1304 are examples of machine-readable media.

The I/O components 1318 may include a wide variety of components toreceive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information,exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/Ocomponents 1318 that are included in a particular machine 1300 willdepend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines such asmobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other suchinput mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely notinclude such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/Ocomponents 1318 may include many other components that are not shown inFIG. 13 . The I/O components 1318 are grouped according to functionalitymerely for simplifying the following discussion and the grouping is inno way limiting. In various example embodiments, the I/O components 1318may include output components 1326 and input components 1328. The outputcomponents 1326 may include visual components (e.g., a display such as aplasma display panel (PDP), a light emitting diode (LED) display, aliquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)),acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., avibratory motor, resistance mechanisms), other signal generators, and soforth. The input components 1328 may include alphanumeric inputcomponents (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointinginstrument), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touchscreen that provides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures,or other tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., amicrophone), and the like.

In further example embodiments, the I/O components 1318 may includebiometric components 1330, motion components 1334, environmentalcomponents 1336, or position components 1338 among a wide array of othercomponents. For example, the biometric components 1330 may includecomponents to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facialexpressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measurebiosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 1334 may includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environment components 1336 may include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometer that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gasdetection sensors to detection concentrations of hazardous gases forsafety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other componentsthat may provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding toa surrounding physical environment. The position components 1338 mayinclude location sensor components (e.g., a GPS receiver component),altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometers that detectair pressure from which altitude may be derived), orientation sensorcomponents (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 1318 may include communication components 1340operable to couple the machine 1300 to a network 1332 or devices 1320via coupling 1324 and coupling 1322, respectively. For example, thecommunication components 1340 may include a network interface componentor other suitable device to interface with the network 1332. In furtherexamples, communication components 1340 may include wired communicationcomponents, wireless communication components, cellular communicationcomponents, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and othercommunication components to provide communication via other modalities.The devices 1320 may be another machine or any of a wide variety ofperipheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a USB).

Moreover, the communication components 1340 may detect identifiers orinclude components operable to detect identifiers. For example, thecommunication components 1340 may include Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components,optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detectone-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code,multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Azteccode, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2Dbar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components(e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, avariety of information may be derived via the communication components1340, such as, location via Internet Protocol (IP) geo-location,location via Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting a NFCbeacon signal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.

Glossary

“CARRIER SIGNAL” in this context refers to any intangible medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine, and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible medium to facilitate communication of suchinstructions. Instructions may be transmitted or received over thenetwork using a transmission medium via a network interface device andusing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols.

“CLIENT DEVICE” in this context refers to any machine that interfaces toa communications network to obtain resources from one or more serversystems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is notlimited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, PDAs, smartphones, tablets, ultra books, netbooks, laptops, multi-processorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, gameconsoles, set-top boxes, or any other communication device that a usermay use to access a network.

“COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK” in this context refers to one or more portionsof a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, avirtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wirelessLAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), the Internet, a portion of theInternet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), aplain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephonenetwork, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network,or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network ora portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network andthe coupling may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, aGlobal System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or other typeof cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling mayimplement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such asSingle Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-DataOptimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology,third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourthgeneration wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE)standard, others defined by various standard setting organizations,other long range protocols, or other data transfer technology.

“EPHEMERAL MESSAGE” in this context refers to a message that isaccessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be atext, an image, a video, and the like. The access time for the ephemeralmessage may be set by the message sender. Alternatively, the access timemay be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient.Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory.

“MACHINE-READABLE MEDIUM” in this context refers to a component, device,or other tangible media able to store instructions and data temporarilyor permanently and may include, but is not limited to, random-accessmemory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), buffer memory, flash memory,optical media, magnetic media, cache memory, other types of storage(e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and/or anysuitable combination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium” shouldbe taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, or associated caches and servers)able to store instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium, or combination of multiple media,that is capable of storing instructions (e.g., code) for execution by amachine, such that the instructions, when executed by one or moreprocessors of the machine, cause the machine to perform any one or moreof the methodologies described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readablemedium” refers to a single storage apparatus or device, as well as“cloud-based” storage systems or storage networks that include multiplestorage apparatus or devices. The term “machine-readable medium”excludes signals per se.

“COMPONENT” in this context refers to a device, physical entity, orlogic having boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branchpoints, APIs, or other technologies that provide for the partitioning ormodularization of particular processing or control functions. Componentsmay be combined via their interfaces with other components to carry outa machine process. A component may be a packaged functional hardwareunit designed for use with other components and a part of a program thatusually performs a particular function of related functions. Componentsmay constitute either software components (e.g., code embodied on amachine-readable medium) or hardware components. A “hardware component”is a tangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may beconfigured or arranged in a certain physical manner. In various exampleembodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computersystem, a client computer system, or a server computer system) or one ormore hardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or agroup of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an applicationor application portion) as a hardware component that operates to performcertain operations as described herein.

A hardware component may also be implemented mechanically,electronically, or any suitable combination thereof. For example, ahardware component may include dedicated circuitry or logic that ispermanently configured to perform certain operations. A hardwarecomponent may be a special-purpose processor, such as aField-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC). A hardware component may also includeprogrammable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configured bysoftware to perform certain operations. For example, a hardwarecomponent may include software executed by a general-purpose processoror other programmable processor. Once configured by such software,hardware components become specific machines (or specific components ofa machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configured functions and areno longer general-purpose processors. It will be appreciated that thedecision to implement a hardware component mechanically, in dedicatedand permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configuredcircuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and timeconsiderations. Accordingly, the phrase “hardware component” (or“hardware-implemented component”) should be understood to encompass atangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed,permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured(e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certainoperations described herein. Considering embodiments in which hardwarecomponents are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of thehardware components need not be configured or instantiated at any oneinstance in time. For example, where a hardware component comprises ageneral-purpose processor configured by software to become aspecial-purpose processor, the general-purpose processor may beconfigured as respectively different special-purpose processors (e.g.,comprising different hardware components) at different times. Softwareaccordingly configures a particular processor or processors, forexample, to constitute a particular hardware component at one instanceof time and to constitute a different hardware component at a differentinstance of time.

Hardware components can provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware components. Accordingly, the described hardwarecomponents may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Wheremultiple hardware components exist contemporaneously, communications maybe achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) between or among two or more of the hardware components. Inembodiments in which multiple hardware components are configured orinstantiated at different times, communications between such hardwarecomponents may be achieved, for example, through the storage andretrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiplehardware components have access. For example, one hardware component mayperform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memorydevice to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardwarecomponent may then, at a later time, access the memory device toretrieve and process the stored output.

Hardware components may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation). The various operations of example methods described hereinmay be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implementedcomponents that operate to perform one or more operations or functionsdescribed herein. As used herein, “processor-implemented component”refers to a hardware component implemented using one or more processors.Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partiallyprocessor-implemented, with a particular processor or processors beingan example of hardware. For example, at least some of the operations ofa method may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented components. Moreover, the one or more processorsmay also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a“cloud computing” environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS).For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a groupof computers (as examples of machines including processors), with theseoperations being accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet) and viaone or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., an API). The performance ofcertain of the operations may be distributed among the processors, notonly residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processors orprocessor-implemented components may be located in a single geographiclocation (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or aserver farm). In other example embodiments, the processors orprocessor-implemented components may be distributed across a number ofgeographic locations.

“PROCESSOR” in this context refers to any circuit or virtual circuit (aphysical circuit emulated by logic executing on an actual processor)that manipulates data values according to control signals (e.g.,“commands”, “op codes”, “machine code”, etc.) and which producescorresponding output signals that are applied to operate a machine. Aprocessor may, for example, be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), aReduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a ComplexInstruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit(GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an ASIC, a Radio-FrequencyIntegrated Circuit (RFIC) or any combination thereof. A processor mayfurther be a multi-core processor having two or more independentprocessors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may executeinstructions contemporaneously.

“TIMESTAMP” in this context refers to a sequence of characters orencoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, forexample giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a smallfraction of a second.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a deviceassociated with a first user, a communication comprising a movementvector representing three-dimensional (3D) movement of a set of skeletaljoints of a second user, the movement vector comprising a recordedsequence of a plurality of poses previously performed by the second userat a first time; receiving, by the device associated with the firstuser, at a second time, a selection of an option to open thecommunication received from the second user; and in response to thedevice associated with the first user receiving the selection of theoption to open the communication, retrieving the movement vector thatincludes the recorded sequence of the plurality of poses previouslyperformed by the second user at the first time that precedes the secondtime when the selection of the option to open communication wasreceived.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, bythe device associated with the first user, input that selects a 3Davatar; and animating the 3D avatar on the device of the first user tomimic the 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of the second user,wherein the 3D avatar is animated by the device of the first user toperform the recorded sequence of the plurality of poses previouslyperformed by the second user that was included in the movement vectorreceived in the communication from the second user.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: capturing, by a second device associatedwith the second user, a video that depicts a second user; identifying aset of skeletal joints of the second user depicted in the video; andgenerating the movement vector based on detected movement of theidentified set of skeletal joints of the second user.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving input from the first user tomodify the movement vector.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein themovement vector comprises a first movement vector, further comprising:receiving input from the first user to record a new movement; inresponse to receiving the input to record the new movement, capturing avideo that depicts the first user; identifying a set of skeletal jointsof the first user depicted in the video; and generating a secondmovement vector based on detected movement of the identified set ofskeletal joints of the first user.
 6. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: modifying the first movement vector by appending the secondmovement vector to the first movement vector; and animating, based onthe modified first movement vector, a 3D avatar to mimic the 3D movementof the set of skeletal joints of the second user followed by mimickingthe 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of the first user.
 7. Themethod of claim 5, further comprising: modifying the first movementvector by prepending the second movement vector to the first movementvector; and animating, based on the modified first movement vector, a 3Davatar to mimic the 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of thefirst user followed by mimicking the 3D movement of the set of skeletaljoints of the second user.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein receivingthe input to record the new movement comprises: receiving input to begincapturing 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints of the first userdepicted in the video; and capturing the 3D movement of the set ofskeletal joints over a given time period defined by the first user. 9.The method of claim 1, further comprising looping animation of a 3Davatar.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication comprises afirst 3D avatar, further comprising: causing the first 3D avatar to beanimated based on the movement vector.
 11. The method of claim 10,further comprising causing a second 3D avatar to be animated based onthe movement vector.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:generating a new movement vector representing movement of the first userover a given time period; and causing the second 3D avatar to beanimated based on the new movement vector while the first 3D avatar isanimated based on the movement vector retrieved from the communication.13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: computing a 3D positionfor placement of a 3D avatar relative to a 3D reference point of thefirst user; and causing to be displayed the 3D avatar within a videothat depicts the first user at the 3D position.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein the 3D avatar continues to be animated while being movedaround in 3D space within the video.
 15. The method of claim 1, whereinthe 3D movement of the set of skeletal joints are tracked using imagescaptured by an RGB camera without using a depth sensor.
 16. The methodof claim 1, further comprising displaying a representation of themovement vector prior to animating a 3D avatar to mimic the 3D movementof the set of skeletal joints of the second user.
 17. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the communication comprises a first 3D avatar, and themethod further comprises: generating a new movement vector representingmovement of the first user over a given time period; causing a second 3Davatar to be animated based on the new movement vector; and sending anew communication to a third user, the new communication comprising thefirst 3D avatar being animated according to the movement vectorrepresenting movement of the second user, and wherein the newcommunication comprises the second 3D avatar animated based on the newmovement vector.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprisingdisplaying on a client device of the third user, the first 3D avataranimated according to the movement vector representing movement of thesecond user and second 3D avatars animated based on the new movementvector representing movement of the first user over the given timeperiod.
 19. A system comprising: one or more processors configured toperform operations comprising: receiving, by a device associated with afirst user, a communication comprising a movement vector representingthree-dimensional (3D) movement of a set of skeletal joints of a seconduser, the movement vector comprising a recorded sequence of a pluralityof poses previously performed by the second user at a first time;receiving, by the device associated with the first user, at a secondtime, a selection of an option to open the communication received fromthe second user; and in response to the device associated with the firstuser receiving the selection of the option to open the communication,retrieving the movement vector that includes the recorded sequence ofthe plurality of poses previously performed by the second user at thefirst time that precedes the second time when the selection of theoption to open communication was received.
 20. A non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium including an augmented reality systemthat includes instructions that, when executed by one or more processorsof a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:receiving, by a device associated with a first user, a communicationcomprising a movement vector representing three-dimensional (3D)movement of a set of skeletal joints of a second user, the movementvector comprising a recorded sequence of a plurality of poses previouslyperformed by the second user at a first time; receiving, by the deviceassociated with the first user, at a second time, a selection of anoption to open the communication received from the second user; and inresponse to the device associated with the first user receiving theselection of the option to open the communication, retrieving themovement vector that includes the recorded sequence of the plurality ofposes previously performed by the second user at the first time thatprecedes the second time when the selection of the option to opencommunication was received.